Little Brat
by Neospector
Summary: It was an honest mistake, really. No one ever saw it coming. I mean, would you? How could one little potion lesson lead to...this?
1. Akko's Perfect Plan

It was some time after everything had happened. Some time after magic had once again poured throughout the world like a waterfall in the rainy season. Some time after Akko had managed to get herself little more than an inch off the ground. Just long enough after everything for the world to settle into a routine. Perfectly normal, in every way.

On one such particularly perfectly normal day at Luna Nova Academy, Akko was failing her classes.

Well, no, she wasn't failing per se, failing implied she couldn't turn things around. No, she wasn't failing, she was…in a rut! Yes! A rut! People always came out of ruts, right?

Yeah, that was it, Akko was in a rut! And how do you get out of ruts?

"And so," Akko slapped her hands against the lunch table where the nine members of all three teams were currently sitting, "you will be my potions partner for the next lesson!"

You beg your smarter friends for help.

Diana stared at the girl with a blank expression. A truly blank expression, not one of those "you say it's blank but you know they're really just confused about what you said" expressions, but an expression that conveyed absolutely no emotion, yet simultaneously burrowed into Akko's soul.

"Pardon me?" She said, after an eternity of silence.

"You heard me!" Akko leaned into the table until she was directly in front of Diana's face. "Diana, be my partner!"

"Akko," Lotte warned quietly, "this kind of is a weird thing to ask…"

'Also, what's with that phrasing?' Lotte thought. 'It sounds like you're asking her out, Akko…!"

"This seems ridiculous and desperate," Amanada said, "I'm not sure which is worse."

"I understand _what_ you're asking, but…" Diana hesitated. "Why…me, exactly?"

"Oh, _Diana_." Akko shook her head haughtily, the way a teenager might inform their younger sibling that Santa wasn't real. Diana felt a small vein pop in her forehead, but fought down the urge to resort to physical violence. "Lukić is giving out extra credit to any student brave enough to drink their partner's potion! If I'm paired with you, not only can you help me mix a great potion, but you'll mix a perfect potion which I can drink for extra credit!"

Akko stood up at the table and put her arms on her hips.

"A perfect plan!" She announced. "Foolproof! Victory! Good grades! I'll have it all! Ohohohohohoooo, YAY!"

Diana gave another truly blank stare.

"That's…" Hannah started, trying and failing to find the words.

"Crazy?" Amanda offered.

"No, actually." Barbara said. "It's kinda…a really good plan. Diana tutors Akko, Akko learns something, Akko gets extra credit, and Diana gets full credit anyway. It's win-win."

"Yes!" Akko said, clapping a hand on Barbara's shoulder. "An ally!"

"Don't touch me."

"Diana's intelligence _would_ cancel out Akko's stupidity..." Sucy mused.

Lotte lightly jabbed Sucy in the ribs.

"Success rate in range of 85 to 95 percent." Constanze's Stanbot chirped. "Risk of failure: low."

"True though that may be," Diana said, "why am I your choice? Why not get someone else?"

Akko huffed a sigh.

"Diana," Akko said as she rubbed her forehead, "there are exactly two people in this school who are going to get a perfect score: you, and Sucy. And while I trust Sucy to make a good potion, if I asked her to tutor me she'd just laugh and make fun of me!"

The group turned to the girl in question, who poked at her food a bit before glancing up.

"I'm sorry," Sucy said, "what part of that is out of character for me?"

"Not to mention," Akko continued, "that I also don't trust Sucy not to test out her new poisons on me!"

Sucy gave a small cackle, which the other girls ignored.

"For all I know she could turn me into a newt, or kill me, or worse!" Akko huffed and crossed her arms. "No, if I want that good grade _and_ that extra credit, I need a partner who can brew a great potion, and teach _me_ how to brew a great potion. And that person, is Diana!"

Diana blinked.

"This is…" She hesitated, thumbing the handle of her teacup. "Surprisingly well thought-out for you, actually."

Akko gave a small, pouty growl, though she didn't really mean anything by it.

"Very well," Diana said, "I'll agree be your partner for this assignment, with some conditions."

Akko gulped.

"A-and, that is…?"

"That you follow my directions, actually study," Diana sipped her tea, "and do your best to brew the potion on your own."

Akko's face blanked for a moment before breaking out into a grin.

"Yes!" She shouted, standing up on the table's seat and raising her hands in victory. The entire cafeteria jumped slightly at the outburst and stared at the girls in confusion.

"You won't regret this Diana!" Akko said as she leapt down and took off running into the hallway. "I'm going to brew a great potion, just you wait!"

"Be in the library by four, please!" Diana called after her.

"Woohooooo!" Akko's voice trailed off as she vanished from the group's sight.

After a long silence, someone coughed awkwardly, and the crowd went back to its daily activities.

"Diana…" Hannah frowned. "Are you sure this is okay?"

"Hannah, I know you and Barbara are still…adjusting…to Akko," Diana sipped her tea once more, "but this is a perfectly fine idea. I dare say I'm rather proud of Akko for finding such a clever way to raise her grades."

"She's got spunk, I'll give you that." Amanda leaned back. "And I guess it's not _as_ crazy as some of her other plans."

"That," Diana said, "and I have a way of guaranteeing success of this plan. No, O'Neill, not by cheating."

"Hey, I didn't say anything!" Amanda huffed. "Yet…"

"I think that with my help, Akko will brew a perfectly functional potion, and much in the same way she was able to fly recently I think that it would do wonders for her confidence. And, as a bonus, raise her grade." Diana dabbed at her face with a napkin. "As Barbara put it, a win-win."

"I just want to see how this whole thing plays out." Sucy grinned. "Who knows, maybe the little brat will surprise us!"

"Sucy!" Lotte hissed.


	2. Akko's Slightly-Less-Than-Perfect Brew

Lukić eyed the class suspiciously. She wasn't particularly suspicious of anything, mind you, it's just that over the years she found that the occasional glare directed towards students kept them in check.

Actually, there was one student she was suspicious of: Kagari. Kagari had that confident look on her again, and as any teacher in the school would attest, a confident Kagari spelled disaster.

Lukić quickly made a mental checklist of potential detentions: gathering ingredients in the Arcturus Forest. Cleaning all the cauldrons by hand. Sorting ingredients by color…no, by name…no, no, by weight! Yessss…

Still, Kagari was paired up with Cavendish today…perhaps things would go okay?

Probably.

"Class," she said, "it is time to start your project. You all have your partners, and I hope you all know what potion you plan on making today. Now, before we begin, let me go over the basic safety information once more—"

"Psst, Akko!" Amanda hissed from her table, where she had been paired up with Constanze. "You sure you're ready to do this?"

"Uwah, I hope so," Akko sighed, "Diana kept me up all night!"

In the corner of the classroom, Lotte stiffened.

"But all that studying will be worth it if I can mix a great potion!" Akko clenched her fists in determination. "I can do this! I will do this!"

"You'll do fine, Akko." Diana smiled. "I believe in you."

"Yeah," Amanda grinned, "believing heart and whatever other nonsense you always shout. Go get 'em!"

"—and while the damage to the castle's foundation was minimal and the smell eventually cleared out of the hallway, we do _not_ want a repeat of last Tuesday, so remember to read the ingredient labels carefully!" Lukić gave a smirk that would make a Lovecraftian horror shiver. "Ready? Begin!"

Akko began. Normally, she would grab everything she needed at once and try to brew the coolest-looking, most complex potion there was.

But not this time.

* * *

"It seems to me," Diana said as she milled through some of the library books on the table in front of her, "that your problem is subtlety."

Akko looked up, a half-eaten tart hanging from her mouth.

"Hwhh?"

"You often go for spells that impress everyone at once," Diana explained, "ones with lots of movement, light, and color."

"Lmmk Shmmn Chmp—" Akko swallowed her tart. "Like Shiny Chariot!"

"Yes, precisely." Diana turned several pages at once. "But that's the problem."

"Huh?"

"You're trying to impress everyone at once. But for this assignment, you don't need to impress everyone, you just need to impress Lukić."

"Uh, yeah? That's why I need to brew the coolest pot—ACK!"

Akko rubbed the spot on her head where Diana's hand had connected.

"You don't need to brew the 'coolest' potion because that won't impress Lukić." Diana huffed. "You need to brew a potion _well_ to impress Lukić."

"I…uh…huh?"

Diana sighed.

"Well, I had hoped you'd realize it yourself, but let me just explain it outright."

She thrust the book she had been thumbing under the other girl's nose.

"Akko, you will brew this potion tomorrow!"

Akko stared at the book the way a small child stares at socks on Christmas.

"Diana…" She bit her lip. "This potion is kinda…"

"I know it's not what you would call 'interesting' or 'powerful'," Diana said, "but being powerful isn't important. Lukić wants to see a good potion, not a powerful potion. Remember, the best potions aren't always the ones that explode the brightest or have the most ingredients, they're the ones that you put the most effort into."

Diana smiled.

"If you try your hardest, any potion you make—no matter what it does—will be great."

Akko glanced between the book and the girl several times, before nodding in determination.

* * *

'I can do this!' Akko thought as she mixed lavender in with the rose oil.

'I won't fail!' She thought as she added the cornstarch.

'I will brew a grea—wait, did I add six Mini-Dragon fangs or seven?'

She bit her lip. She should add one more just—

Akko took a deep breath. In. Out.

'Remember what Diana said,' she thought, 'don't panic, it's better to add less of an ingredient than more…or, was it the other way around?'

She sprinkled in the bat nails.

'Can't afford to get distracted…gotta focus on the—aw geez is Sucy brewing poison again? Lotte looks so uncomfortable…"

She stirred and stirred and stirred until the potion turned bright pink.

It was ready.

* * *

Lukić granted herself a small cackle.

"I do hope you've finished," she said, "because time's up! Let's see how well you actually did. Cavendish? Let's start with you."

Akko gulped, but Diana remained steady.

"Nóstos Álgos Philtre," Diana said as she held up a small blue vial, "allows the drinker to briefly relive happy memories."

"Quite the complex brew," Lukić grinned, "but the better question is, did you succeed?"

"I—I'll drink it!" Akko said.

"Akko…"

"I trust you, Diana!" Akko said as she snatched the vial out of the blonde's hands. "I will get that extra credit!"

She quickly tilted the bottle back and took a swig of the liquid. As she finished, she smacked her lips.

"Huh…actually kinda sweet, like—WOAH!" Akko went wide-eyed and stared at the ceiling.

Her brain tingled and her body went fuzzy. A heat rose in her chest and spread to the tips of her ears.

"Ahhhhh…" Akko cooed. "Iz…is…iz like I'm back in the hot spring I went to back home…so nice…"

Akko mumbled something that was either in Japanese, unintelligible, or both. Lukić raised an eyebrow.

"Impressive," she said, "and extra points to Cavendish for having your partner drink it. Though I doubt you needed it, hehehe…"

"Whuhuuu…" Akko blinked a few times before coming down. "Wait…huh?!"

She leaned in on the table into Lukić's face.

"Wait a minute!" She shouted. "I thought I got extra credit for drinking the potion, not Diana!"

"Well that would be a stupid way to give credit, wouldn't it?" Lukić cackled, unperturbed by Akko's outburst. "Brewing a potion you trust your partner to drink and survive is worthy of extra credit, not being stupid enough to drink whatever's in front of you."

"Bu-whu-ah…" Akko gaped.

She slumped over the table, drained.

"My plans…" She moaned. "…but it was foolproof…"

"No matter," Diana said as she uncorked Akko's creation, "let's continue."

"E-eh?!" Akko snapped upright. "Diana, wait! You don't have to—!"

"Nonsense," she said, "I believe in you, Akko. You're a great witch."

And with that, Diana tilted the mixture into her mouth, to the protests (both silent and vocal) of several classmates.

Nothing happened for a half-minute. A long, awkward thirty seconds of absolutely nothing happening. Exactly thirty seconds. Constanze timed it.

Then, Diana's hair began to shimmer and glean. Her highlights began to glow. And, like someone adjusting the hue slider in an image editor, her hair color changed from its typical blonde to a light shade of powder blue.

Diana fiddled with a few strands of her hair.

"It's a bit pale," she said, "you may have added too much cornstarch. But otherwise, a perfectly functioning hair color potion. Coma Capillus, just like we studied together."

Akko sat stunned, at an utter loss for words.

"Astute observation, Cavendish," Lukić said, "and extra credit to Kagari for her potion not killing you, I suppose."

"Diana…" Akko stared blankly at the girl.

"Like I said, Akko," Diana smiled, "you're a great witch, and you made a great potion."

Akko's face slowly broke out into a grin.

"Haha, thanks Diana!"

"Now," Lukić hummed, "let's move on. O'Neill! You're up!"

"Aw, man!"


	3. A Bit of a Cold

Akko stretched her arms as the group walked through the hallway.

"Hahhhh I'm so glad that's over!" She whined a little. "Who would have thought the extra credit was for having your partner drink the potion and not the other way around?"

"Everyone." Hannah answered.

"Everyone." Barbara repeated.

"Everyone with a brain." Sucy huffed.

Akko turned around and stuck her tongue out at them.

"It did seem a little too good to be true when you first mentioned it." Lotte said, hoping to be helpful.

"At least Cavendish was willing to drink your potion." Amanda smirked and turned towards Diana. "Like, seriously, are you crazy, suicidal, or both?"

"For your information," Diana huffed, "I had absolute confidence in Akko's ability. I _have_ absolute confidence in Akko's ability. Unlike you, it seems."

Amanda raised her hands innocently.

"Regardless, even if she had made a mistake, it is incredibly difficult, or rather, nigh impossible to incorrectly brew the Coma Capillus potion in any way that would be consider dangerous."

"Nóstos Álgos, on the other hand…" Sucy mumbled. "Seriously, did you brew that to show me up or were you feeling that cocky enough to try it?"

"I wanted a challenge," Diana shrugged, "liquid nostalgia sounded interesting."

"Speaking of which…" Hannah put a hand on her hip. "Akko, is your happiest memory seriously at some…hot spring?"

"No!" Akko huffed indignantly. "…okay, fine, I did remember the first time I ever visited a hot spring, but I also remembered a bunch of other stuff! It was like…reliving all my happy childhood memories, I guess?"

She smiled warmly.

"I remembered the first time I rode a bike, the first time I saw Shiny Chariot, my old room as a kid…" She trailed off, mumbling about all manner of mundane, ordinary things of little importance.

"It's liquid nostalgia," Sucy clarified, "does exactly what it says on the tin, makes you feel nostalgic."

"I take it it's difficult to brew?" Barbara asked, though it wasn't really a question.

"Rating of four black stars according to the Olde Witche Brewing Catalog." Stanbot chirped from Constanze's shoulder. "Second highest complexity ranking!"

"Indeed," Diana said, "it's not dangerous per se if brewed incorrectly, but there's a large number of steps that must be followed to—oh my! Akko! You…you look hot!"

Lotte tripped over her own foot and collided face-first into the ground.

"Are…you alright?" Sucy asked as she helped the poor girl up.

"I-I'm fine…" Lotte answered, rubbing her nose. "I-I just…oh, my! Akko, you look feverish!"

"Ih fweel phweeeen…" Akko wobbled in a circle, her cheeks flushed to the point that her face resembled a lumpy pomegranate.

Amanda put a hand to Akko's forehead, winced, and put her hand back down.

"Yikes." She said, not needing to say any more than that.

"Pwobly jussa floo…" Akko mumbled, then sniffed. "Nah big eel."

Sucy rolled her eyes and reached up her sleeve. From somewhere hidden in her robes she withdrew a small bottle filled almost to the cork with a yellow liquid that shimmered so brightly that it looked like molten gold.

She uncorked the bottle, and held it out to Akko.

"Drink this," she said, "and then go take a nap."

Akko grabbed the bottle and the group collectively stared at it. After a few seconds, they all gave Sucy a variation of the same look.

"It's a cure-all." Sucy rolled her eyes.

"You don't make 'cure-alls'," Hannah narrowed her eyes, "you make poisons."

"I can make more than one thing!" Sucy snapped, than sighed. "Look, I swear it's not poison. I'll drink some of it myself if that'll prove it to you."

"Nab…" Akko sniffed again. "I trush you, Shucy!"

And with that, she downed the bottle's contents, much to the rest of the group's bewilderment. She smacked her lips when she finished.

"Kinba tase like pinabble…" She wrinkled her nose and pinched her forehead. "Woof, that clearsh the sinusesh!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Sucy mumbled, as if embarrassed to have created something that didn't kill her. "Now go lie down in the infirmary or something and let the potion do the rest."

"Cahn do!" Akko saluted and half-stumbled, half-skipped down the hall. She paused for a moment near the end to grip her nose again and mumble about how tingly it felt to jump around.

"I'll go with her." Lotte said, more as a statement of fact than an offer. She too walked away and together the pair disappeared into the school halls.

With the two of them gone, Diana decided to stare at Sucy. Sucy shifted uncomfortably.

"What?" She asked flatly.

"Oh, nothing, nothing…" Diana tossed back her hair. "Just…that was Xanánioma Draught, wasn't it?"

"Yeah…" Sucy ventured, unsure of where this was going.

"Quite the…quite the complex brew, one might say, hm?"

Sucy narrowed her eyes.

"Four black stars in the Olde Witche Brewing Catalog, if I recall correctly."

"Don't you dare."

"Did you brew that to show me up?" Diana raised an eyebrow.

"Don't. You. Dare."

"Or were you feeling that cocky enough to try it?"

"Bite me, cabbage dish!"

* * *

"There you go," Lotte half-mumbled as she rolled Akko into one of the infirmary beds, "you get some rest."

"Bud Ihm naw tire!" Akko whined into her pillow. "I wanna schtay up an plah!"

"You need to rest," she said, "you'll feel much better if you do."

"Ohkey mommy…" Akko dragged the sheets half-heartedly over herself.

Lotte rolled her eyes and turned around to adjust the bed's curtains. Her glasses fogged up briefly and she moved to wipe them off.

"You know, I don't remember you ever getting sick before," she said as she lightly pushed the lenses into the fabric of her robe, "I hope it's not contagious."

"Wash contashish mean, mommy?"

"I'm not your mom, Akko." Lotte put her glasses back on and blinked the blurriness away. She made a brief mental note to open a window or something, the infirmary was far too hot and humid.

"Hehe…" Lotte chuckled to herself. "It's kinda funny, I never took Sucy to be the kind of person to make helpful potions. Did you know what she brewed today? I actually don't know myself, it was so powerful I was afraid I would pass out from the smell alone! Ugh, that girl, I swear…"

Silence was the response.

"Hm?" Lotte dropped her voice to a whisper. "Did you finally get to sleep, Akko?"

Her glasses were starting to fog up again. She frowned and twiddled with her hair as she wiped them off for a second time. Her hair, from what she could tell, was frizzing up something fierce, which might have been chalked up to the humidity if it didn't also feel a bit…damp.

Why did her hair feel damp? That…that wasn't right.

Lotte turned around.

"Akko?"


	4. A Bit of a Heat

"All I'm saying," Amanda huffed, "is that it makes perfect sense."

"No," Hannah huffed, "it makes no sense whatsoever."

"Why doesn't it make sense?!"

"Because it's crazy!"

"It's not crazy!" Amanda sighed. "Look, just think about it for a second: Verde is _totally_ a robot."

"How is that not crazy?!"

"Look at her eyes!" Amanda banged her arm against the padding of the chair she was sitting it. "Normal people do not have literal stars in their eyes!"

"Then how can she ride a broom?!" Hannah challenged. "How can she cast magic if she's a robot?!"

"I dunno, uh, how about, _magitronics_? Everything professor _Croix_ did? Everything Constanze _does_?"

"Well, we clearly have an _expert_ here," Hannah smirked, "let's ask them! _Constanze_!"

The girl in question snapped up with a panicked look on her face.

"In your professional, _magitronics expert_ opinion," Hannah said a tinge too smugly, "is Verde Shidariza a robot?"

The arguing pair leaned in, much to the noticeable discomfort of the smaller girl. Constanze's eyes darted between one redhead and the other, before she shyly buried her face in the machine she had been working on.

"Ugh, see?" Amanda snorted. "You scared her. Nice job, Scotland."

"_England_!" Hannah gave a final harrumph. "And you still haven't proven Verde is a robot!"

"Sucy, help me out here?"

"Oh, I legitimately do not care." Sucy said, sitting very politely and very neutrally in her chair.

"Well, what about you, Parker?"

"Whuh?" Barbara looked up from her tea.

"Nevermind, forget I said anything."

"…huh." Barbara looked down at her tea.

"You have no evidence, O'Neill, and you know it!" Hannah snapped.

"Fine, then I guess this conversation is over!"

"Fine!"

"_Fine_!"

"_Fine_!"

The pair sat angrily in silence for a while.

"Alice is totally a space alien too." Amanda muttered under her breath.

"Oh, now I _know_ you're making things up!"

"Girls," Diana sighed, "do you have to be so loud?"

"I wouldn't be so _loud_ if Amanda wasn't such an _idiot_!"

Amanda stuck out her tongue.

"Hannah, even if these rumors about our classmates are…ridiculous, at best…"

Amanda grumbled a few choice words under her breath.

"…it's still not a reason to fight over it so passionately." Diana put a calming hand on the girl's shoulder. "Save your energy for an actual emergency."

Immediately after tempting fate like that, a series of thumps sounded from the hallway, followed by a loud slam as the door burst open and Lotte came careening towards the group, skidding to a halt, a panicked look on her face.

"Lotte?" Diana raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"Why are you…wet?" Amanda leaned back nervously.

"Come—! Quick—! Hot—! Stehm—!" Lotte panted. "Stee—! Ack—! Awk—! Stehm—!"

"Try to be specific!" Hannah snipped.

"Stee—! Stah—! Stoo—! Ack—!" Lotte gulped down a few lungs full of air. "_AKKO IS_ _STEAMING_!"

"What." Barbara frowned uncertainly. "Like…her fever's gotten worse?"

Lotte darted over and grabbed the girl by the collar.

"NO!" Lotte yelled as she shook poor Barbara back and forth the way one might shake an instant-drink mix into a water bottle. "I MEAN AKKO IS _LITERALLY_ STEAMING! SHE IS _LITERALLY_ EMITTING _HOT WATER VAPOR_ FROM HER BODY AND I _DON'T KNOW WHYYYYYYY-HYYYYY-HYYYYY_!"

"Ah-Oh-kay!" Barabara managed. "Please-stop-shay-king-me-please!"

Lotte thankfully let go, causing the other girl to drop to the floor in an exasperated heap.

"Lotte, calm down." Diana ventured. "What happened, _exactly_?"

"I DON—" Lotte gulped. "I don't knoooooow! One minute Akko was lying in the infirmary bed, I turned around, and when I looked back there was all this…STEAM everywhere and I couldn't see her and I don't know what's going on and I'M FREAKING OUT!"

"I'm sure there's a logical, rational explanation for—"

"THEN WHAT IS IIIIIIT?!"

"…erm, l-let's go see if we can find out what's going on." Diana managed. "I'm sure we can solve it if we all put our heads together."

* * *

Amanda waved away a small puff of hot water vapor.

"You, uh…" She hesitated to find the right words. "You weren't kidding about the steam."

"I told you!" Lotte chewed at her nails. "What is even happening?"

The group cautiously eyeballed the entrance to the infirmary. Or rather, they eyeballed the place where the entrance should have been, since occupying the space was a wall of solid, white steam.

"And you're sure this is coming from Akko?" Diana asked.

"There's no one else in there!" Lotte wiggled in such a way that the untrained observer might interpret it as a potty dance. "Ohh this is bad…"

Jasminka, who had been silent among the group for quite some time now, offered Lotte a potato chip. Lotte snatched the whole bag and began nervously shoveling the food into her mouth. Jasminka frowned.

Hesitantly, Diana flicked out her wand and gave it a small wave in the direction of the cloud wall. A solid gust of wind blew through the hallway and into the doorframe, making a small dent in the mist but otherwise not doing much else.

"Doesn't look like it'll be dispelled easily…" Diana bit her lip.

"Alright." Amanda cracked her knuckles and pulled her wand from her belt, flicking it open. "Let's go in."

"Go _in_?" Hannah blanched.

"Uh, yeah." Amanda stretched her arms some. "To save our friend, obviously."

"I agree." Diana said.

"Diana!" Hannah protested.

"Akko would have already charged in head-first, we owe it to her to at least _try_ helping her." Diana thumbed her wand. "And besides, dispelling it from out here clearly isn't working."

"Y-yeah, but—!"

"You're not seriously chickening out, are you?" Sucy huffed, flicking open her wand. "I know you don't really like Akko as much as the rest of us, but that's pretty low."

Constanze flicked a switch on her Stanbot, causing his eyes to light up like flashlights.

"I-if it's to save Akko," Lotte gulped and flicked out her wand, "I-I'll do whatever it takes!"

"They're right, you know." Barbara said.

"Barbs?!"

"We can't just sit here! We gotta do something!" Barbara clenched her fists in determination. "The only difference between a hero and a coward is that a hero takes action! That's why, when the time comes, you have to charge ahead and do what's right!"

"Night Fall, volume 127, chapter 42." Lotte said.

"Ah, Edgar…" Both Lotte and Barbara sighed dreamily.

"But…but…" Hannah stuttered.

She struggled with her words, biting her lip and looking away.

"My hair will frizz up!"

The group gave her a collective look. Hannah sighed.

"Ugh, _fine_, it was worth a shot." She flicked out her own wand. "Let's just get this over with…"

"Right." Diana nodded. "Ladies? Onward!"

"CHAAAARGE!" Amanda shouted as the group filed quickly into the clouds, making a noise that could technically qualify as a "battle cry", if one were to stretch the definition a bit.

As riled up as they had been, they quickly stopped, trying to get their bearings.

"I can't see anything!" Amanda let out a frustrated groan.

"I know we 'owed it to Akko' and all," Sucy huffed, "but are we sure this plan was thought through?"

"I-it's fine..." Diana said, though she noticeably omitted the part where she made a mistake. "Just…everyone join hands so we don't lose each other."

There was a pause.

"…is that my _hand_?" Diana asked.

"Sorry!" Lotte squeaked.

"Perhaps you should _let go_."

"Sorry!"

"Hey Constanze," Amanda said, "do you need to ride on my shoulders so no one trips over you?"

"Ow!" Barbara whined. "Who just kicked me?!"

"Sorry," Stanbot chirped, "was aiming for Amanda."

There was a small swirl of green light, followed by a blast of wind as Jasminka cleared away a small space in the steam around the group with her magic.

"Thanks, Jaz." Amanda said. The girl in question smiled warmly back at her.

"Akko?" Lotte called into the empty space around them. "Akko? Can you hear me?"

There was silence for a moment.

"Hullo?" Came a rather high-pitched voice. "Who's there?"

"Akko?" Diana responded. "Where are you? Follow the sound of my voice!"

A set of footsteps tromped quite quickly, if not sprightly over the floorboards, and a shadow formed to the left of the group.

It was a rather…small shadow. And they were rather small footsteps. As their vision cleared, the group suffered only more confusion as a person finally emerged.

A rather…_small_ person.

"Hullo…" A nervous, shy, and very much six-years-old child said to the strange group of teenage girls. "My name is Atsuko. Where…where am I?"


	5. A bit of a Chat

Atsuko Kagari sat in a large chair, dangling her legs arrhythmically. The chair _looked_ soft and plush on the outside, but it was deceivingly hard and lumpy in all the wrong places, to say nothing of the funny smell. Akko's custom-made witch hat slumped down a half an inch, so she nudged it upwards to fix it. She took a moment to stare at the group that had congregated in the other corner of the room, just out of earshot.

These older girls were _weird_. They had helped lead her out of the steamy room (though not without the tall redhead girl tripping over something and teaching her a new word, which the glasses girl made her promise never to repeat), but they kept secretly staring at her. _Tried_ to keep secretly staring at her. Kept staring at her. They weren't all that discrete about it.

The pretty blonde girl was the leader, obviously, since she was giving all the orders, and leaders always gave others orders. The big girl who was always eating gave off a squishy, huggable feeling that reminded Akko of her mommy. The girl with the sharp teeth looked scary, but Akko had a gut feeling she was one of those "actually super-nice deep down" types.

As the group whispered among each other, Akko wondered what they were talking about. Well, they were talking about her, probably, but like…was it good? Was it bad? Would it be okay to ask for a different chair?

Well…they can't be _all_ bad. They gave her a yummy tart, and they were already friends with a girl who looked to be the same age as her.

And so, Akko decided she liked them, and happily took another bite of her tart.

* * *

"This is so weird," Lotte whined softly, "how did this happen?"

"I'm sure there's a logical—" Diana started.

"You keep saying that," Sucy hissed as she stole a discrete glance at the child, "but it's not helping any!"

"We have to keep a level head," Diana huffed, "we can't just up and panic; if we do we'll never think of a solution. Not to mention, we'd freak Akko out…"

"She doesn't seem to remember us at all…" Jasminka frowned. "Do you think she has amnesia? Or…"

"I swear, it better not be time travel again…" Sucy sighed.

"Again?" Hannah mumbled underneath her breath.

"We cannot rule out any possibility," Diana said, "we need to tell the professors immediately."

"Sure, the professors, but what about Akko?" Amanda asked, peeking at the little girl in question, whose cheeks were now stuffed with a tart. "Not like we can tell her all this, she'd freak out."

"We'll have to keep it a secret from Akko." Diana sighed. "If it is time travel—and I sincerely hope it isn't time travel again—"

"Seriously," Hannah huffed, "when did I miss time travel?!"

"—we can't risk exposing the future," Diana continued, "and even if it's not time travel…well…I don't want to upset Akko by forcing too much information on her at once. She's…she's too…"

She thought for a moment.

"Adorable and innocent?" Barbara offered.

The group nodded wholeheartedly.

"And how!" Stanbot chirped.

"Indeed, but that aside…" Diana cleared her throat. "Follow my lead…A-Atsuko!"

The little girl looked up and the group loosely surrounded her.

Diana coughed into her fist once more to clear her nerves.

"Hello, eh…Atsuko," she said, "I know you must be very confused—"

"You can call me Akko."

"Eh?" Diana's thought process stalled at the unexpected mid-speech interruption.

"That's what everyone calls me!" She smiled cheerfully. "Akko!"

"R-right, Akko…" Diana hesitated. "I-I know you must be quite confused right now, um…let's start with…introductions, yes. My name is Diana."

"Diana?" Akko tilted her head. "That's a really pretty name!"

Diana was forced to lean against a wall in order to breathe for a moment.

"M-my name is Lotte." Lotte raised her hand.

"I'm Sucy." Sucy gave a toothy smirk.

"Yo, I'm Amanda!" Amanda waved. "And this is Constanze and Jasminka!"

The girls in question gave a thumbs up and a wave, respectively.

"My name is Barbara." Barbara waved.

"And I'm Hannah." Hannah tossed her hair back.

Akko digested this information for a moment.

"It's nice to meet you all," she chirped, "but…um…how did I get here? And where is here, anyway?"

"Er…well…" Amanda hesitated. "Do you remember…anything before you showed up here?"

Akko thought for a moment, sucking on one of her fingertips in thought.

"Not much," she said, "it's Saturday so I wasn't really doing anything, just trying on my witch outfit for the Shiny Chariot event next week."

She twirled in a circle and waved an imaginary wand, making her cape flutter and her hat droop over one of her eyebrows.

"Do you like it?" She smiled cheerfully. "When I grow up, I want to be a witch just like Shiny Chariot! Then I can perform for people and make everyone happy!"

Barbara stuck one of her knuckles into her mouth in order to restrain an indignant, giddy squeal.

"I thought you hated Akko's obsession with Chariot." Sucy leaned over and hissed into Barbara's ear.

"Yeah, because she was our age," Barbara hissed back, "as a kid it's just plain _adorable_!"

Sucy slid about a foot away from her.

"Your outfit is…nice." Diana struggled with the words. "And your dream is…admirable."

Akko giggled adorably. Again.

"So, uh, heh…" Amanda butted in before someone had a heart attack. "A-anything weird after that? Like how you got from your room to here? Huh?"

"I-unno…" Akko shrugged. "One second I was in my room, the next everything was white and I couldn't see. I thought I heard someone calling my name, so I walked over and found you guys."

Akko frowned.

"Did something happen?" She asked. "My mommy and daddy are gonna be worried if I don't show up for dinner on time…"

"Hmm…" Diana thought for a moment. "Well, Akko, I can't actually say I know _how_ you got here…"

Akko visible deflated.

"You don't know?" She asked sadly.

"No, um...w-what I _mean_ is," Diana immediately jumped back in, "I…_we_ don't know _yet_. Rest assured, we'll do everything we can to get you back home."

"We will?" Sucy asked.

Lotte jabbed Sucy sharply in the ribs, causing her to keel over in pain.

"You mean it?" Akko looked up and Diana swore she saw literal stars in her pupils. "You'll get me home?"

"Heck yeah we mean it!" Amanda pumped her fist and brought her leg up on the table. "What kind of witches would we be if we just left you high and dry?!"

There was a pause.

Diana realized it first and pinched the bridge of her nose, followed by Sucy who groaned as she slapped a hand over her face. Constanze scrunched up her face in annoyance when it dawned on her, whereas Jasminka just frowned. Barbara noticed fifth, just barely beating out Amanda who realized her own sentence with a frown. Poor Hannah, meanwhile, never caught on until it was too late.

Akko gaped, eyes blown wide. She took a long, drawn-out, deep breath.

It was later rumored that the resulting squeal broke two of Luna Nova's windows, several potion beakers, and a handful of slightly-fragile ceramic unicorn figures from Elfriede's collection.


	6. Anne Finnelan's Chipped Teacup

"Kids these days are certainly something." Miranda Holbrooke hummed lightly as she blew on her tea to cool it down. "Wouldn't you agree, Anne?"

Anne Finnelan stared at her teacup. It had been chipped, although it had nothing to do with the loud outburst she had heard a moment ago—mental note to check on whatever _that_ was. She could easily repair the cup, mind you, it was just that whenever she tried it wound up breaking itself again. In the same place, with the same size chunk taken out of it. Again and again and again and again.

She also kept winding up with the same teacup whenever she and the headmistress had tea together. She tried to avoid it; shoving it to the back of the cupboard, shoving it to the front of the cupboard, hiding it in a completely different cupboard…it always made its way back to her and her alone; none of the other teachers had to deal with this cup, of that much she was certain.

She had, for a short while, considered the possibility of a curse. But no matter where she looked for magical traces—on the cup itself, on the cupboard, on the teapot, in the tea itself—she found nothing. Not a speck of magic. The cup was mundane and non-magical, perhaps disappointingly so.

Eventually she decided that the damn thing had sentience and was currently going through its "moody teenager" years, making the chip the porcelain equivalent of a scenester haircut. No, she was not "speaking from experience", please do not look through the Luna Nova 1987 yearbook, _thank you_.

"Hm," Professor Finnelan said non-committedly, "such rowdiness. Probably Kagari again."

"Oh my," Holbrooke stirred some sugar into her tea, "if that's the case, aren't you curious about what's happened?"

"Certainly not," Finnelan raised her chipped teacup, "today is one of the few days I have time away from classes. I want absolutely nothing to do with Kagari, her friends, or any shenanigans they're causing this time."

"HEADMISTRESS!" Lotte's voice—surprisingly loud for someone of her size and demeanor—was accompanied by a loud "BANG" of an (antique, irreplaceable) door being slammed into the wall it was attached to.

Finnelan let out a long, breathy groan.

"Miss Jansson?" Holbrooke blinked. "Is something the—"

"I-I apologize, professors!" Diana hastily half-jogged, half-walked into the room, panting slightly.

"Miss…Cavendish?"

_This_ got Finnelan's attention. Cavendish may have recently joined Kagari's "band of misfits" as it were, but she was still a model student. Some of the professors thought that Kagari was bringing Cavendish down, but Finnelan played against the odds, choosing to believe that Cavendish was bringing Kagari's crew up. She enjoyed betting on long-shots; she never really _won_ any of the long-shot bets she made, but she enjoyed betting on them.

Regardless, Cavendish was nothing less than a straight-A student even now; she wouldn't simply barge into the room willy-nilly. And, for that matter, _Jansson_ of all people being loud was even _more_ rare…

"Is there a problem?" Finnelan asked, worry crossing her face.

"I am so sorry for the interruption," Diana continued, "but there is a…_small_…issue…and, well…er…how do I put this delicately…?"

"Start from the beginning, if you please." Headmistress Holbrooke motioned politely towards the girls.

"Y-yes, well," Diana rubbed her hands nervously, "th-the thing is…er…well…there seems to have been an…accident? No, that's the wrong word…Lotte…?"

"A completely inexplicable magical catastrophe?!" The girl offered.

"Not…quite 'catastrophe', but closer to what I mean, yes." Diana shifted nervously. "And, well, uh…well…"

Finnelan frowned.

"Well?" She huffed. "Spit it out already! What could possibly have you prattling on like thi—hm?"

She felt a light tug at the bottom of her robe. She glanced down and studied the specimen before her. Clad in a dirty but not ratty white witch's hat, a dark-purple cape, and a soft pink dress.

Now, some of the more…frustrated and—shall we say—_less academically inclined_ students might claim that Finnelan hated kids. This wasn't true; she loved kids. Kid-kids, that is. Teenagers were more of a toss-up, but she only disciplined them because she cared (or so she told herself). But yes, she did have a soft spot for kids.

"Well now," she cooed in a tone that didn't suit her at all, "who is this little sweetie?"

Finnelan scooped up the child in her hands and brought her up to face-level. Such pretty eyes, and an infectious smile seeing as Finnelan herself couldn't prevent a grin from breaking out.

"My name's Atsuko Kagari!" The girl chirped happily. "You can call me Akko!"

Finnelan's smile grew noticeably strained.

"Oh." She said.

"Hey, you're a witch, aren't you?" Akko beamed. "That is so cool! I bet you're super powerful! Can you show me some spells?"

"Uhm…" Finnelan turned towards her students, slowly and jerkily and constantly maintaining her forced smile. "Miss Cavendish…?"

"I am so sorry professor," Diana expertly dodged her teacher's gaze, "this is what I was trying to bring up."

"_Whyyyyyy_…?" Finnelan struggled to maintain her composure.

"We don't know what happened, exactly…" Lotte fidgeted. "We just…found her, in the infirmary…like this."

"How did Ka—"

"_Akko_," Lotte interrupted, "has…aheh…never met a real witch before, which is why it's…_convenient_? Convenient is a word…for her to have appeared at Luna Nova. Wouldn't you agree, professor?"

"Uh huh!" Akko nodded in place of the teacher. "Witches are so cool! I wanna be just like you when I grow up!"

Diana motioned with her hands as if she were presenting a new model car on a podium.

"The situation, headmistress…" She said. "As you can see."

"Yes." Holbrooke coughed slightly. "I do indeed…see."

Finnelan gently set Akko down and joined Holbrooke and Diana in a small huddle, while Lotte waved Akko over to the other corner of the room.

"Miss Cavendish…?" Finnelan began warily.

"L-let me just explain as best I can…" Diana whispered. "Yes, Akko is currently a child, and we have no idea how or why. She visited the infirmary for a light fever and then…we just found her like this."

"Does she…remember anything?" Holbrooke asked.

Diana sighed.

"She doesn't, unfortunately." Diana spared a glance across the room, watching as Lotte tried her best to keep up with Akko in some imaginary game. "As such, we've been trying to keep her relatively unaware of her…_condition_, as it were."

"Do you have any idea of what her…_condition_ is, then?" Finnelan copied Diana's glance across the room, watching as Jansson spun herself into dizziness in an attempt to chase after the girl.

"Nothing but vague theories thus far, I'm afraid." Diana shook her head. "We were hoping you and the rest of the staff could provide assistance."

"Indeed." Holbrooke sighed. "I'll have some of the professors start research in their down-time. Anne, you and I will investigate the Horologium room for any traces of time travel magic. Urs—_Chariot_, that is, can start searching the archives for additional data."

Diana nodded, then blinked.

"Ursu...CHARI—!" She said, panic rising in her voice. "We have to warn her before—!"

"I am so sorry I'm late!" The voice of one Chariot du Nord panted from the doorframe. "There was this problem with Arcas and there were just _so many bees_ and then I had to wash out the smell of fish, it was a whole thing."

Chariot looked up and noticed the looks of utter horror on Anne Finnelan, Miranda Holbrooke, and Diana Cavendish.

"Did I miss teatime?" She frowned.

She felt a tug at her dress, and stared down directly into a pair of crimson eyeballs.

"You look like Shiny Chariot!" Akko said.

Shiny Chariot blinked.

'This is bad,' Finnelan thought, 'this is the worst possible situation.'

'Oh dear…' Holbrooke frowned.

'Oh no…' Diana clenched her fists. 'I didn't consider this…this wasn't supposed to happen!'

'What if this is time travel?!' Lotte shook nervously. 'We totally screwed up the future, haven't we?'

Finnelan leaned back in a panic, Holbrooke gripped her staff tighter, Diana shut her eyes, and Lotte chewed her nails from her chair.

Chariot's mind was running a mile a minute, and maybe jumping hurdles and sliding under obstacles to boot. Who was this girl? It couldn't be Akko, could it? Was she another fan? Should she hide her identity? Did she miss teatime?

"Are you…" Akko tilted her head.

The entire room seemed to lean in, every piece of furniture holding its breath.

"Are you Shiny Chariot's _mom_?!" Akko grinned.

Chariot—or perhaps Chariot's mom, as the case may be—crashed to the floor in an undignified heap. So too did Finnelan and Lotte. Akko merely stood there, a fingertip stuck in her mouth in confusion.

Chariot was the first to miraculously recover.

"I-I'm not _that_ old, am I?!" She shouted, comically on the verge of tears.

Diana and Holbrooke let out a sigh of relief.

"I-I put on makeup!" Chariot poked at her own cheek. "I exercise! Do I really look that old?! I'm not old! That's Finnelan's job!"

"Hey!" Finnelan shouted.

Diana mercifully stepped in.

"Akko…" Diana emphasized the name, hoping Chariot would catch on to the situation. "This is…uhm…_Ursula_! She's…um…"

"Chariot's older sister!" Lotte shouted from the corner of the room.

"Yes!" Diana clapped her hands. "Sister! That she…is!"

"E-eh?" ̶C̶h̶a̶r̶i̶o̶t̶ Ursula blinked. "I-I don't have a—"

Diana clapped a hand on the professor's shoulder and squeezed. Chariot was rather shocked at how much of a monster grip the girl had.

"Of course she doesn't like talking about it." Diana said, clearly flustered and panicked. "Because of Chariot's fame, that is. Of course."

"Wo~ow…" Akko hummed. "It must be so cool to have a sister who's famous! I bet you're super proud of her!"

"Y-yes?" Chariot darted her eyes back and forth between Diana, Akko, and a rather interesting spot on the far-right wall. "Q-quite proud…of her…"

"I wanna be just like Shiny Chariot when I grow up!" Akko declared.

Chariot let out a small, pitiful noise that was a cross between a whimper and a groan.

"A-Akko!" Holbrooke spoke up in an attempt to cut through the awkward atmosphere. "H-how about I walk you back to the girls who found you? I'm the headmistress of this school, so I can tell you all about what it'll be like when—if—_when_ you go here! In the future!"

"Eh?!" Akko's eyes lit up even brighter, which many would say was impossible. "You really think I can go here when I grow up?!"

"I…I _know_ so, Akko." Holbrooke smiled, noticeably uncomfortable.

"Yaay!" Akko cheered and darted to the door, running around in a circle as Holbrooke hobbled after to catch up with the girl.

As soon as they were gone, Chariot turned to Diana, looking as if she had seen the ghost of a particularly scary-looking monster.

"Wh-wha-wh-wha-wh-_WHAT WAS THAT_?!" She managed.

"Akko is c-currently a child." Diana said.

"_WHYYYYYY_?!"

"W-we don't knooow!" Lotte cried back.

"Ohhh…" Chariot slumped down. "I just got used to telling her the truth and now I have to lie again? I feel bad…"

"It's for the best, professor…" Diana reassured her with a pat. "I-I don't like lying to her either, much less lying to her as a _child_ of all things, but telling her the truth is…well…"

Diana motioned vaguely with her hands.

"I-I understand," Chariot sighed, "I just don't like it."

Finnelan snorted.

"Still though," she said, "that girl…always getting into trouble. If she didn't keep sticking her nose where it doesn't belong, these kinds of…_incidents_ wouldn't keep happening."

Diana knit her eyebrows.

"_Excuse_ me," Diana huffed, "but Akko has done nothing wrong. This isn't her fault, she's the victim here."

"And you know that for certain?" Finnelan raised an eyebrow. "Kagari is nothing but trouble, she could have done something you're unaware of, _Miss Cavendish_."

"As a matter of fact, I know _exactly_ where Akko was." Diana crossed her arms. "I took her to the library yesterday and I kept her up all night."

"You did that one on purpose!" Lotte shouted.

"And as for the rest of the day," Diana continued unabated, "I spoke with our friends and each one of them can confirm her presence at some point or another. During the past 24 hours, Akko has been _completely accounted for_. I say this as a fact: she has done _nothing_ wrong."

The student and the professor held a glaring contest for a while, before Finnelan relented with a sigh.

"Very well," she said, "if you insist it isn't Kagari's fault, then I believe you. This may come as a shock to you, but I don't want her to remain a child."

Diana, Lotte, and Chariot all gave her a look.

"I-it's true!" Finnelan huffed. "For a witch to be transformed into a child on campus…this mistake _must_ be rectified. And let's say nothing of the potential horror of informing her parents…"

Finnelan frowned.

"And…also…Akko doesn't deserve to have her self simply…wiped clean like that. It isn't…fair, I think is the word. As a witch…no, as a _teacher_, I _refuse_ to let a student suffer such a fate!"

Diana smiled, as did Lotte. The group sat in silence for a moment, appreciating the mood.

"That's fine, and all…" Chariot finally said, breaking the silence. "But, um…_I don't really look old enough to be my mother, do I_?!"


	7. Amanda tries her hand at babysitting

"Ooh!" Akko tugged at Holbrooke's sleeve. "What do they do in _that_ classroom?"

"Er…" Miranda hesitated. "That's…that's a closet, dear."

"Oh." Akko pursed her lips, then gasped again. "Ooh! What do they do in _that_ classroom?"

"That's…a bathroom."

"Oh." Akko pursed her lips, then gasped again. "Ooh! What do they do in _that_ classroom?"

Miranda sighed internally as she explained the concept of a stairwell to Kagari. This had been going on for _five_. _Straight_. _Minutes_. And Miranda hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise about anything related to Luna Nova's rich history. Just door after door of "that's a hallway", "that's a bathroom", and "that _is_ a classroom but we just teach regular maths in there" followed by a far-too-lengthy-for-her-tastes explanation of why she had said "maths" instead of "math" and—oh for the love of…she's _pointing again_.

Just as Akko was about to ask about the 10th dormitory door she had seen on this trip, Miranda spotted her target…victim…_student_.

"Oh look, Akko," Miranda smiled as best she could, "it's miss O'Neill, let's go over there!"

To her credit, upon spotting the headmistress Amanda immediately realized that Holbrooke was trying to pawn off the responsibility of looking after Akko, and immediately tried to flee the scene. Unfortunately for her, Holbrooke was surprisingly fast for someone her age, managing to corner the girl just outside of her dorm.

"Miss O'Neill!" She sing-songed in a voice very much inappropriate for her. "What a _lovely_ surprise!"

"Headmistress…" Amanda glowered.

"I was just showing our _wonderful_ new guest around," Holbrooke continued unabated, "and I had an _excellent_ idea!"

Amanda narrowed her eyes. This was less dramatic than it sounds when you consider the fact that the headmistress was half Amanda's height, but the emotion carried.

"What better way to introduce such a…_promising_ young girl to our lovely school, than to have a student give the tour herself."

"I know what you're trying to do," Amanda said pre-emptively, "do not."

"Oh, I have absolutely _no idea_ what you mean, dearie." Holbrooke chuckled.

The headmistress slid the smiling little girl into Amanda's arms the way one might slide a piece of meat on a plate to their younger sibling. The last slice of meat, the one that's rare on the inside and burnt on the outside and is mostly fat so it tastes like chewy sadness but your parents make you eat it anyway because "throwing it away would be wasteful". _That_ piece of meat.

"Now Akko," Miranda cooed, "Amanda will show you around now."

"Really?!" Akko smiled a toothy smile.

"I really can't," Amanda said, "I have to—"

"Of _course_ she will," Holbrooke said, "she'd _love_ to help out."

Amanda narrowed her eyes.

"I will have revenge, you understand?" She said.

"Amanda is a great student," Holbrooke continued through the rantings of her student, "I'm sure she'll tell you _everything_ you want to know about Luna Nova if you just ask her."

"I have it all planned." Amanda growled quietly. "It will be slow, painful, and involve a large number of radishes. I hope you're ready."

"And I'm sure she'll be _happy_ to do it," Holbrooke interrupted, "considering she already seems to have gotten special permission to be in her dorm when she _should_ be in class right now."

Amanda's glare shifted from "you're the worst" to "I will urinate on the tree you'll turn into".

"You blackmailing little…"

"Oh my, look at the time…" Holbrooke said as she glanced at an invisible clock and managed to somehow shuffle backwards through the hallway at a speed that would make Olympic athletes pant in exhaustion. "I have a meeting to attend, you two play nice, take care, bye now!"

And with that, she vanished around a corner.

"_Fhoooo_…"

Amanda exhaled audibly. It was a simple noise that conveyed a lot of information, such as "I know where you live" and "I wasn't kidding about the radishes" and "my roommate is well-versed in the subject of weaponizing root vegetables".

"Are you really going to show me around?" Akko asked cheerfully.

"Look," Amanda began, "the truth is—"

Amanda looked into her eyes, that was her big mistake. Those big, round, gleaming puppy-dog eyes set in a cute puffy face. Looking that cute ought to be a war crime…

Actually…

Now that she thought about it, why _was_ Amanda upset? It's not that she hated kids or something. And she definitely didn't hate Akko…and she did basically just get explicit permission to skip class (even though she was totally going to do it anyway)…

"The truth is," Amanda said, "that I was about to go practice my flying."

Akko gasped sharply.

"You can _fly_?!"

"Of course I can fly," Amanda laughed haughtily, "I'm a _witch_."

"Ohmigosh, OHMIGOSH…!" Akko seemed to sparkle in awe.

"So…" Amanda smirked as she pretended to inspect her nails. "You wanna come with?"

* * *

"WHADDYATHINK OF THIS?!" Amanda shouted as she kickflipped her broom and landed in a handstand.

"WOAH!" Akko clapped rapidly. "THAT'S SO COOL! THAT'S SO COOL!"

"AND THEN LIIIIIKE THIS!"

Amanda pulled into a vertical climb before seemingly stalling out, at which point she yanked the top of her broom and spun it over her shoulders before throwing it downwards, landing on with the balls of her feet. Then, to complete the trick, she quickly bounced off the broom into a backflip, grabbing the broom with her hands as she fell and swinging underneath it, twisting her body as she came around the top again and landing back on the broom in a crouch.

"WOOO! SO COOL!" Akko cheered.

Amanda circled around and halted her broom in a hover just next to the girl.

"Wooow!" Akko clapped again. "That was so cool!"

"Hmph!" Amanda smirked. "I am the best flyer in the whole school, ya'know!"

"Woooaaah!" Akko's eyes sparkled. "You're like, as cool as Shiny Chariot!"

Amanda thought on this for a minute, reminding herself that this was Akko and that she meant it as a compliment.

"Hehe," Amanda chuckled, "I wouldn't say that…"

'I'd say I'm better.' She added mentally.

"You two seem to be having fun." A voice chirped from behind Akko.

Amanda grinned and waved at Jasminka and Constanze, who were approaching.

"Heyooo!" Amanda greeted. "Just showing Akko how great I am at flying!"

Amanda rubbed the little girl's head, much to her chagrin.

Constanze leveled a glare at their friend.

"Skipped class." Stanbot chirped.

"Hey now," Amanda smirked, "this time I got permission."

"Before or after you skipped?" Jasminka asked between bites of her chips.

Amanda rolled her eyes. Akko ventured up to the newcomer girls.

"Um…" She gave Jasminka a determined look. "Can you fly too?"

"Hmm…" Jasminka thought for a moment. "Not as well as Amanda, I suppose. She might be kinda annoying…"

"Hey!"

"…but she is one of the best flyers in the school." Jasminka thought for another moment. "Maybe even _the_ best flyer in the school."

"Oh…" Akko hummed. "But…you can fly?"

"All witches can fly," Jasminka said, "I've only ever met…one…that couldn't, and…well…I won't bored you with the details, but she was determined to prove herself and eventually taught herself how."

"Oooh…" Akko sucked on one of her fingers. "Does that mean…does that mean I can fly too?"

Jasminka smiled warmly. Maternally. A soothing smile that made anyone feel comfortable.

"Akko," she said, "I know for absolute fact that you'll be flying at this very school some day."

Akko broke into a wide grin.

"Really?!"

"Really."

Akko turned to Constanze, who didn't move for a moment before giving a light thumbs-up.

"Yay!"

"Hey now," Amanda chimed in, "if you want to fly, how about I take you on a little aerial tour?"

Akko's eyes lit up, but Jasminka's face contorted into a small frown.

"Are you sure…?" Jasminka asked.

"Look," Amanda huffed, "the headmistress literally told me to show Akko around. I'm doing exactly what she told me to do, I'm just doing it _my_ way."

Jasminka stared at her roommate and Amanda winced under her scrutiny. Jasminka was pretty open to Amanda's pranks and general nonsense, and she almost never made that face, but when she did…_hoo boy_…talk about a guilt trip.

"I-I'm not gonna, like, do loop-de-loops or anything…" Amanda flushed lightly in embarrassment. "I'm capable of flying carefully. I'm not an idiot."

She half-waited for Sucy or Hannah to appear and make a quip about doubting that.

"A-anyway," she said, "I'll keep it slow. You understand, right Akko? You gotta practice if you wanna fly like me!"

"Okay…" Akko seemed partially excited at the idea of flying and partially disappointed at the idea of not flying fast.

"Here," Amanda patted the handle of the broom in front of her, "sit right here and hold on tight."

Akko straddled the broom with much difficulty and a little help from Amanda. Jasminka still wore her frown, which irked Amanda.

"I promise," Amanda said, "I'll play it safe."

"If you say so…" Jasminka said, worriedly.

Amanda turned to Akko.

"Okay…" She said. "Ready, Akko?"

"Ready!" The girl gripped the broom.

"Now, the spell to make a broom fly is 'Tia Freyre', got it?"

"Teeah Faireh?"

"Tee-ah Fray-ay" Amanda sounded out.

"Tee-ah Fray-ay." Akko repeated.

"Very good." Amanda cooed.

Man, she was actually pretty good at this kid stuff. This oughta be a cinch!

"Tee-ah Fray-ay." Akko said again.

"Okay," Amanda said, "with me. One…two…three!"

Now, Amanda was not—contrary to what others say—dumb. And she did actually know how to slow down and fly safely every once in a while. She just, you know, usually chose not to. Because she was awesome. But with a child on the broom, Amanda decided to play it safe and had planned to just carefully lift off the ground. A few feet, maybe. A yard and a half at most.

That plan…shall we say…did not come to fruition.

"Tia FreeeeeYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

The broom shot off vertically like a rocket, going from 0 to 60 almost instantaneously. Well, not really 60…Stanbot's built-in radar gun _actually_ clocked in at around 73 MPH.

"Oh my." Jasminka said, watching things unfold from the ground.

Constanze snapped a photo with Stanbot.

On the broom, one occupant screamed herself hoarse, terrified at the sudden, seemingly-uncontrolled acceleration and the very real possibility of death.

Akko, on the other hand, giggled delightfully.

'Stop!' Amanda demanded of the broom, but the broom didn't listen.

'_Please_ stop!' But still the broom didn't listen.

'STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!' The broom was not in a listening mood.

"STOOOOOP!" Amanda shouted aloud this time, and the broom finally did yield, screeching to a halt far above the school grounds.

Amanda gripped the handle of the broom until her knuckles turned a pasty white. She may be good on a broom, but that was because she practiced all the time. She knew what she was doing and she knew how the broom would respond to stimuli. It's a completely different story when you're expecting the broom to slowly float up and instead find yourself suddenly aboard a space shot.

And _wow_ were they high up. Amanda had been high up before, like when she helped launch the other girls towards the missile…but that was then and this is now and back then they didn't have a _highly-excitable 6-year-old girl_ piggybacking on the broom.

"Wooooaaah…" Akko cooed as she looked out over the school grounds. "This is so cool!"

"C-cool…" Amanda squeaked. "Y-yeah…v-very…c-cool…"

Amanda shifted her grip nervously, worried that if she willed the broom down it might do a repeat performance of its little stunt towards the very hard ground this time.

"You get to see this all the time?" Akko asked, eyes darting from one ant-sized building to the next.

"I…" Amanda hesitated. "I…guess I…do…?"

"Wooow…witches really are the best!"

Amanda gulped nervously, staring down at her now-ant-sized friends.

"Y-yeah…"


	8. Alchemical Mishaps

"Wow~!" Akko cooed. "We're really flying!"

"Yes we are," Jasminka hummed, "and at a safe height as well."

"I keep telling you," Amanda growled, "that wasn't my fault!"

"Doubt." Stanbot chirped.

Amanda growled again, quieter this time. She honestly had no idea why her broom suddenly decided to wig out on her—an action which necessitated Jasminka and Constanze undertake a rescue mission by flying up on their own and manually towing a near-catatonic Amanda and a hyperactive Akko back to the ground. But despite Amanda insisting she was innocent, her babysitting privileges had been thoroughly revoked by an irate Jasminka, who only didn't scold Amanda then and there simply because it would be rude to do so in front of Akko.

Suffice to say, Amanda would not be getting dessert for quite some time.

It wasn't all bad, though; Akko was not only unharmed but quite excitable from the little adventure, and with some weapons-grade puppy-dog eyes she narrowly managed to convince Jasminka that their aerial tour should continue—albeit lower and slower this time, with Akko riding on Jasminka's broom instead, Constanze puttering off to the side on her custom broom, and Amanda half-sulking in the rear.

"So, Akko," Jasminka asked, "what do you think of the school so far?"

"It's amazing!" Akko cheered, almost standing up before Jasminka was able to push her back down. "Everyone's so nice and now we're _flying_! This is the greatest day ever!"

Akko shifted somewhat in Jasminka's lap, squishing against the older girl's belly.

"I wish my mommy and daddy were here, though…" She sighed. "I hope they think I'm okay…"

As if sensing the conversation, a cloud passed over the sun, desaturating the area and cooling down the air.

Jasminka frowned. As did Amanda, who also floated up until she was alongside her friends.

"Hey," Amanda said softly, "it'll be okay. I mean, look at where you are! At an actual magic school for actual witches! You still wanna be a witch, right?"

Akko nodded furiously.

"More than anything!"

"Then this is the best thing ever!" Amanda declared. "If anything, your parents oughta be jealous!"

"Jealous?"

"Of how awesome your time here is gonna be!" Amanda pumped her fist. "We're gonna make it so you have the best day ever, and then some!"

Mirroring the girl's mood, the cloud finished passing over the sun, restoring the brightness along with the moderately-comfortable heat.

"Yeah!" Akko cheered. "What are we gonna do first?!"

Amanda froze, the fact that she had just been running her mouth without thinking again dawned on her. What were they going to do first?

"You can start by listening to me." A new voice sounded off from the group's left.

"Oh, Diana." Jasminka said as she steered her broom in front of the girl. "How are you?"

Diana stood in front of her entourage—including not just her usual posse of Hannah and Barbara, but also a bored-looking Sucy and an incredibly frazzled-looking Lotte. Diana leaned one hand against her hip as she spoke.

"I'm doing well," she said, "all things consider, that is."

She glanced up and down at the trio, and then pointed at them.

"The brooms…?"

Jasminka pointed at the child in her lap.

"Ah, yes." Diana said. "I understand completely."

"We're flying!" Akko declared. "Isn't it awesome?!"

"Yes, Akko, quite lovely." Diana smiled. "Would you mind playing with Lotte for a bit? I need to speak with the others privately."

"Can't I stay and listen too?" Akko sucked her finger.

Diana shook her head.

"Aww, okay…"

The girl concentrated as she wiggled on the broom for a bit, before throwing her foot over the handle and sliding off gracefully.

By which I mean, comically and face-first into the dirt.

"I'm okay!" Akko shouted into the ground before she got up, slapped the dirt and dust off her face and clothes, and ran off to play with Lotte, who had subtly wandered away from the group to give them more space.

"Alright," Amanda said, "what's the jist, Cavendish?"

"The professors are still working on figuring out what happened to Akko," Diana explained, "but—obviously—it will take some time before they reach a conclusion."

"I feel somewhat bad lying to her," Jasminka said, "I'd rather this didn't go on too long."

"Lying to a six-year-old kinda feels like bad karma or something," Hannah shrugged, "I don't think anyone really enjoys the idea."

"I'm fine with lying to her." Sucy said.

"You don't count." Barbara hissed.

"In any case," Diana said, "as her closest friends, the eight of us have been tasked with watching over—"

"Babysitting duty." Sucy interrupted. "We're on babysitting duty."

"…in a manner of speaking, yes…" Diana sighed. "We've also been granted free reign to investigate Akko's case ourselves, partially due to our history involving magical incidents, and partially because the professors have requested any help they can get. In fact, Sucy and I will be investigating a few possible leads today."

"Seriously?" Amanda snorted, glancing at Sucy. "Why are you helping her?"

"Because it sounded like it'd be interesting." Sucy half-chuckled, half-cackled. "I'm betting money on Cavendish messing up her potion somehow. I don't think the potion _caused_ any of this, or anything, I just think it'd be hilarious if her potion wound up being faulty and I want to be there when we find out about it."

Sucy paused.

"To laugh at her," she clarified, "in case you didn't take my meaning."

"You gave her a potion too, you realize?" Diana raised an eyebrow.

"Please," Sucy huffed, "you really think _my_ potion was bad?"

The pair glared at each other for a moment.

"…in any case," Diana said as she rolled her eyes, "if you come across anything—some magical artifact, some cursed object, _anything_ suspicious—please let the professors know immediately."

"Can do." Amanda mock-saluted. "Anything else?"

"Yes, please refer to Professor Chariot as Professor Ursula for now."

"But why…" Amanda glanced at Akko. "…never mind, stupid question."

"Mmm." Diana hummed before turning to Sucy. "Well, I suppose we should start our investigation now."

"Hehe…" Sucy chortled. "Time to see exactly how badly you screwed up."

Diana rolled her eyes as the pair wandered off towards the school building, vanishing into one of the doors.

Amanda stared after them for a while.

"So…I'm just gonna put this out there…" Amanda crossed her arms. "But £5 says Diana screwed up her potion and caused this whole mess."

Barbara looked half-offended, but Hannah simply huffed.

"Oh please," she said, "£5 says it was _Sucy's_ potion that got messed up."

Amanda smirked.

"You're on!"

* * *

"Can't you at least help a little?" Diana huffed as she gently thumbed a rack of potion ingredients too exotic to name.

"I just don't think someone 'tampered with the ingredients' or whatever." Sucy rolled her eyes from the other corner of the room. "Mixing up or replacing a single ingredient—I don't care how complex the potion is—wouldn't make anyone turn into a child."

Diana said nothing, so Sucy took it as a cue to continue her lecture.

"In fact," she said, "I don't think there's any combination of ingredients here that would turn Akko into a child…I don't know of any potion _period_ that would turn Akko into a child, least of all one that would also turn the infirmary into a sauna. Even if you royally screwed up while making your potion and added _every wrong ingredient possible_, the worst thing it might do is blow up on you. Not turn the drinker into the child, not steam up an entire room, and _definitely_ not _both_."

"Don't you think I know that?!" Diana snapped. "I'm _well aware_ of what my potion can and cannot do, I just—! Ugh…"

Diana rubbed the bridge of her nose, staring intensely at the wall for a moment as she turned over the thoughts in her head.

"I just want to go through every possibility." Diana sighed. "I don't…want to lose my friend."

Diana leveled a glare at Sucy.

"Isn't Akko your friend, too?" Diana asked. "More so than me?"

Sucy mumbled something quippy regarding the second half of Diana's statement, and then huffed.

"Yes, Akko is my…_friend_." She sounded out the word as if sniffing a suspicious jug of milk to make sure it's safe to drink. "I don't want Akko to remain a child, if that's what you're implying. I just want to be practical here."

"Practicality dictates we examine every possibility," Diana said, "no matter how slim the chances are."

"_Paranoia_ says we examine every possibility," Sucy corrected, "_practicality_ says we look at how Akko could have been turned into a child. Like a spell, or some magical artifact…knowing Akko she probably got cursed by some mirror again."

"You're just being pedantic…" Diana shook her head in frustration. "Just…ugh…just humor me? For once? Please?"

"Yeah, whatever…" Sucy rolled her eyes as she opened a cabinet, half-heartedly picking up random jars and observing them.

The pair remained silent for quite some time, having run out of things to say as they continued their search.

In her heart, Diana knew Sucy was right; there wasn't a potion—that she knew of—which could transform the drinker into a child, at least not in the way Akko had done so. She'd also never heard of the drinker bursting into steam as a side-effect. Again, not in the way Akko had done so.

So…why was she even looking?

Guilt wasn't _quite_ the right word, it was more like…if she had caused Akko's problems, she could fix them, because that's what Diana Cavendish did to her problems: fix them. And if Diana hadn't caused Akko's problem, then how could Diana Cavendish be expected fix the problem?

What do you call that? Validation? False atonement? Borderline narcissistic selfishness?

Whatever you wanted to call it, this is where she was now: looking through cabinets full of potion ingredients for absolutely no reason without so much of a clue as to—

…

"Sucy?" Diana asked, thumbing the label of a particular jar.

"What?"

"Aqua Mirabilis…" Diana swished the jar around. "It's typically…clear in color, correct?"

"Yeah?" Sucy looked away from her cabinet. "What about—"

Diana swished around a milky-white, foggy liquid in the jar.

Sucy stared at it, turning the image over in her mind. Then, she broke out into a sharp grin.

"Oh my god…" She poorly stifled a laugh. "That is the most _hilarious_ thing I've ever _seen_!"

"Don't." Diana warned.

"It's _contaminated_," Sucy broke out into a choked fit of laughter, "I can't believe it…"

Sucy bit her lip, anticipating the juicy tidbit of information Diana was currently implying.

"You used the contaminated Aqua Mirabilis in your Nóstos Álgos," Sucy chortled, "_didn't you_?"

"B-be quiet!" Diana flushed, half from embarrassment and half from anger. "T-this ingredient is incredibly common! It's…it's practically standard! The entire class must have used some it!"

"AHAHA! Oh man! They _did_, didn't they?!" Sucy gave up on suppressing her laughter, instead embracing it. "That's-HA-perfect! The entire class made bad potions because of a sing-HA-gle bad ing-gre-hee-hee-dee-_eehhhnnt_!"

It took exactly five minutes for Sucy to calm down enough to catch her breath. Diana swore the girl was exaggerating on purpose.

"Are you quite done?" Diana said, still slightly red in the face.

"Y'huh…" Sucy coughed, sniffed, and cleared her throat. "I'm good now. It's just the funniest thing I've heard all year. Maybe ever. That's all."

Diana's eyes narrowed.

"I mean, the _entire class_." Sucy chuckled once more. "Aqua Mirabilis is in, like, _every potion_ except a few super-simple ones. Even the Xanánioma Draught I made had…had…hmm…"

Sucy's grin didn't so much fade away as it did simply pop out of existence. Diana was confused about the sudden change in attitude for only a moment, before it dawned on her.

"You used the bad Aqua Mirabilis too," Diana said, "didn't you?"

"No! I-I mean, yes! I-I mean…!" Now was Sucy's turn to flush red in embarrassment. "S-shut up, will you?"

"I'm not making fun of you…" Diana said, leaving out the words 'unlike you', if only to be polite. "Like you said, the ingredient is incredibly common. Everyone in the class likely made an ineffective potion because of this single ingredient."

"Y-yeah," Sucy mumbled, "I guess…"

"I-in fact, the only potions that wouldn't use Aqua Mirabilis are very simple potions. Like explosive powders, or Coma Capil…" Diana trailed off.

It took a moment for the information to register, but as soon as it did Sucy paled, and the pair shared a horribly awkward silence.

"The entire class…" Sucy said, somewhat hollowly. "Everyone in the _entire class_ made a bad potion…_EXCEPT_ Akko?!"

Diana looked away, unable to say anything in her defense.

"You realize," Sucy said, "that _no one_ must _ever_ learn of this."

"Especially not O'Neill."

"_Especially_ not O'Neill."


	9. A Little Wooden Box

"If you could attach a generator to her, we could power the whole country." Hannah concluded as she watched Akko complete her 8th lap around the library.

"Lotte just keeps chasing after her," Barbara said, "what a trooper."

"I'm honestly surprised Lotte has that much stamina." Amanda remarked.

"Definitely doesn't look the type." Barbara concurred.

"Yeah, but you see how they run?" Hannah asked. "It's weird."

The other girls—Jasminka and Contanze included—gave her a look.

"It's true!" Hannah said. "When Akko runs, she does this…"

Hannah spread her hands behind her and leaned forward, holding her pose until she felt she had gotten her point across.

"And when Lotte runs," Hannah continued, "she does this…"

Hannah held her hands vertically, tucked her elbows inward, and wiggled side-to-side like a broken wind-up toy.

"You get what I'm saying?"

A full minute of silence indicated they did not.

"Okay. Fine. Jeez." Hannah sighed, crossing her arms in a huff. "Never mind. Whatever."

The overly-large door to the library creaked open, followed by Diana's voice.

"We're back." She announced as she opened the door, her neutral tone all telling those inside exactly what had transpired.

"Diana!" Akko cheered and, finishing her 9th lap, collided straight into Diana's leg.

Diana, not missing a beat, scooped the girl up in her arms. Lotte collapsed into one of the library's many chairs, telepathically thanking Diana for the break.

"Yooo, Cavendish." Amanda waved her hand in a lackluster fake salute. "Didn't find anything?"

Diana glared, then sighed.

"No, we did not." She relented.

"Yup," Amanda smirked, "I figured."

Sucy started to argue something, but Diana waved her down with her free hand.

"Not going to argue with you, O'Neill." She said. "You don't get the satisfaction."

"Diana! Diana Diana!" Akko chirped. "I found something! Lemme show you!"

Diana complied, and as Akko's feet touched the ground she took off like a rocket to the other end of the library. She began tugging at something in between the bookcases, straining a bit before it slid out with a pop and the girl went tumbling onto her back.

Unfazed, she quickly stood up and presented the object to the other girls.

"Wazzat? Amanda craned her neck to get a look. "A box?"

"A box!" Akko nodded.

Indeed, it was a box. A small, unremarkable box a little bit larger than your average library book. It was unadorned, but the lid—as well as being connected by two unpolished metal hinges on the back—had a faint Luna Nova logo seemingly burnt into the top, which had grown faint with age. In its prime, the box may have been quite professional looking, but as of now it merely gave off an aura of neglect and mediocrity.

Hannah and Barbara peeked their heads in from the side.

"Huh," Hannah said, "it is a box. Wonder where it came from."

Barbara, on the other hand, thought for a moment, before clapping a fist into her palm in realization.

"Oh!" She exclaimed. "I know what that is! It's a magic testing kit!"

"Magi-wha?" Amanda scratched a nonexistent itch on her head.

"How do you know what it is?" Sucy asked in rudely skeptical tone.

"What, am I not allowed to know what things are?" Barbara huffed.

Sucy opened her mouth.

"Don't answer that."

Sucy closed her mouth.

"But yeah," Barbara continued, "it's a magic testing kit. They were like, invented as a way to measure magical power."

"That seems foolish," Diana said, "you cannot measure magical ability as if it were some kind of weight or number."

"Well, obviously not," Barbara nodded, "but that didn't stop people from trying to. I even remember reading that, at one point, Luna Nova had a strict entry requirement that you had to have a certain amount of magical power before you were admitted."

The girls collectively grimaced, with even Hannah wrinkling her nose at the idea of being judged in such a…blatant manner.

"Kinda makes me glad we don't do that now," Amanda said, "that's like, the most pretentious thing I've ever heard."

"It very much goes against the most fundamental philosophical principles of magic." Diana said.

"Professor Pisces would blow a gasket if Luna Nova did that now." Sucy remarked.

"I think it's kinda cool!" Akko said.

The girls stared, unsure of how to proceed.

"Like, y'know," Akko said, "your power level! Over 9,000!"

"Is that a reference to something?" Hannah asked. "That feels like a reference to something. That feels like an _overdone_ reference to something."

"Akko…" Diana bit her lip. "Being a witch…there is a lot more to it than raw magical power."

"But—"

"No, Akko, trust me on this." Barbara knelt down to the child's level. "Being a witch isn't just about how much magic you have, or even how you use it. Being a witch is about what you use your magic for. Why you use your magic."

Barbara glanced to the side a bit.

"I learned this lesson pretty recently," she said, "someone…I know…wasn't good at magic. I made fun of her for it."

"But…" Akko frowned. "You're so nice."

"That's…why I said I learned a lesson." Barbara managed a wincing smile. "This girl…she couldn't use magic, and she wasn't very…er…smart about using magic either. But then some…stuff…happened, and, well…I watched her…we all watched her do incredible things. All because she used her magic—every bit of it—to help others."

Barbara smiled.

"You understand?" She asked. "How much magic you have isn't important, a great witch is someone who uses her magic for the right reasons."

Akko sucked on one of her fingers.

"I…guess I understand…" She said, hesitantly. "But…what if I don't have magic at all? Can't I check that at least?"

"Well…I…ehhh…" Barbara hesitated, looking to Diana for support.

Diana made a face to indicate her displeasure.

"I mean…" Sucy chimed into the conversation. "We don't have to tell her the number, I guess…"

The witches in the room all mumbled and groaned incoherently and awkwardly.

"S-sure…" Barbara relented. "I…I guess that's okay…"

"Yay!" Akko clapped. "If I know I have magic, I know I'll be a great witch someday!"

Barbara took the box and began fiddling with it. Alas, the box was quite old and the lid was stuck tight, leaving the poor girl unable to open the—oh, wait, no, there it went. It just needed a tug.

'Rats.' Barbara thought as she opened the lid to reveal the kit within.

The kit itself was rather plain, packed much like a small art box. On one side was a stack of folded—if decaying—pieces of parchment. On the other side were several slots, some of which were filled with vials of a sparkly black powder. Stacked above them was a small, unremarkable wooden pole; more of a stick, really, but without any of the knobbly bits.

Amanda walked up around the group and stood next to Diana, watching the box for a moment before leaning over and whispering.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" She asked.

"This is a horrible idea." Diana whispered back.

"Yeah," Sucy chimed in from Diana's other shoulder, "but if it gets her to shut up for a while…"

Constanze had gotten up and gone to inspect the kit as well. Looking it over, she pointed at the interior of the lid.

"Ah," Barbara said, "instructions. Let's see here…"

Barbara squinted at the faded letting printed on the inside of the lid. She cleared her throat.

"'You, who wish to be of the most esteemed, who wish to bear the gift that has been granted to us—'" She skimmed a bit. "Uh…'wherefore, you shall use your gift wisely, with compassion and—'…how long does this even go…ah, here we are."

She read the last bit silently.

"So, I think it's just, you tap the paper with the wand—that's the stick thing here—and cast the spell 'Pàipear Dathte'. Then, you sprinkle the paper with the powder. It's supposed to turn colors and make a pattern, which someone at Luna Nova would then read and match the color to your 'magical power'."

She emphasized the last bits with air quotes, hoping that Akko would stop taking the thing so seriously. It didn't work.

"That's it?" Amanda raised an eyebrow. "When you said they were measuring magical power I kinda assumed something more…"

She waved her hand trying to think of the right word.

"Malicious?" Sucy offered.

"Yeah!" Amanda gave a quick thumbs up. "Something more cruel or whatever, not pretty pictures."

"Well…" Diana hummed. "I have used Pàipear Dathte in projects before…I don't suppose it would cause _too_ much trouble."

Jasminka frowned and made a small noise of disapproval before digging back into her chips.

Barbara handed Akko one of the sheets of paper. She did so gingerly, as the paper felt as if it would crumble to dust if she pinched it too hard. She was a bit less careful with the stick-wand, which had held up surprisingly well for such an old thing.

"Okay, Akko," Barbara said, "ready?"

Akko nodded furiously, gripping her stick tightly.

"Repeat after me: Pàipear Dathte."

Akko breathed slowly for a bit, then repeated.

"Pàipear Dathte!"

She lightly tapped the stick to the paper. Nothing interesting happened.

"Okay, so now we sprinkle the…what was it…onyx wood dust?"

"Onyx wood?" Sucy perked up. "That stuff's onyx wood?"

"I think?" Barbara squinted at the box. "Kinda hard to read, but I think it says 'onyx wood'."

"That stuff won't work, then." Sucy said. "Onyx wood has a shelf life of about three years, max."

"Aw," Akko frowned, "so I won't see my picture?"

"Nah," Sucy waved her off, "you just need fresh powder. Pretty sure we keep some in stock with the potion ingredients."

"Should be easy to get, then." Amanda said. "Heeey, Lotte! You wanna—"

Lotte cut her off with an exhausted, uncharacteristic glare. The air around her seemed to vibrate and darken with rage.

"…you wanna sit right there and rest?" Amanda finished awkwardly. "Y-yeah…that…that sounds like a good idea…er, Jasminka? Would you…?"

"Of course." The girl smiled as she stood up. "Come along, Akko."

"Yaay!" Akko cheered. "Can I have more cookies too?"

"Of course you can." Jasminka said as the pair left the library, the door clicking shut behind them.

There was a brief moment of silence, as every girl in the room considered what to say next.

"This is all going to end in tears." Hannah finally remarked.

"It's not _that_ bad…" Barbara ventured.

"As long as we make her aware that it's not really a useful metric for measuring ability." Diana concurred.

"I'm just surprised Akko even found that box," Sucy said, "why would something like that even be in the library?"

"I mean, why is there a secret passageway to the Horologium Room in the library?" Amanda shrugged. "Who knows?"

"Secret what to the where now?" Hannah blinked.

"Regardless," Diana said, "I doubt Akko will focus too much energy on this. She moved off of brooms fairly quickly, as I recall?"

"Pretty much." Amanda relaxed her hands on the back of her head. "She's a kid. She's _Akko_ as a kid. 'Short attention span' would be putting it mildly."

"And we're stuck looking after her," Sucy huffed, "such a pain."

"It's not so bad," Barbara said, "_we_ haven't had much trouble."

"Who's 'we'?!" Lotte shouted from her table.

"Whatever," Sucy grumbled, "she's just way too hyper for my tastes. Too happy. Too…"

She shuddered.

"Cute." She gagged. "Who wants something that diabetes-inducing around all the time?"

There was a soft knock at the library door.

"Surely you're exaggerating." Diana said, before turning towards the door. "And to whomever is there, this is a public library. You do not need to knock."

The door remained silent for a moment, as if hesitating and thinking something over, before it creaked open—just a smidge, enough to let one girl through. A not _un_remarkable girl with neck-length brown hair, her bangs tied up with a small pink ribbon sloping forward on her head.

"U-um…hello?" She asked.

Amanda glanced over the girl a few times.

"Hi." Amanda finally said back.

"You are... Erika, correct?" Diana asked. "Bice's and Bridget's roommate?"

"Er, yes!" She waved. "That's me! Um…can we come in?"

Diana blinked.

"Of course," she said, "as I mentioned, this library is free for any Luna Nova student to use."

Erika nodded rapidly, then ducked her head out the door, whispering hurriedly.

She then walked further into the room, not quite at the tables but enough to be out of the doorframe. The door itself opened a little further, and a small group of students bumbled out into a small huddle, gathering next to Erika and…simply standing there.

For a brief moment, no one moved, no one said anything. Constanze coughed lightly.

"So…" Hannah glanced around awkwardly. "Did you need to study or something?"

"Nope!" Erika said, a bit too cheerfully.

Hannah processed this information for a second.

"No…?" She ventured.

"Nope!" Erika replied, again a bit too cheerfully.

There was another awkward pause.

"So…" Sucy leaned back a bit in sheer confusion. "What _did_ you want?"

"Right! Yes!" Erika pumped her fists and looked pointedly at the other group of witches. "Please! We want to see Akko!"


	10. Akko's Fan Club

There was silence in the library. Hardly unusual, but in this particular case quite noteworthy. Stanbot's processors whirred, as if filling the lull in conversation.

"You…wish to see Akko?" Diana ventured.

"Yes!" Erika pumped her fists again.

"Akko." Hannah said. "Like, _Akko_, Akko."

Erika nodded rapidly.

"Okay," Sucy huffed, "if no one else is going to say it…_why_ do you want to see Akko?"

"Ah, I suppose we should explain…" Erika cleared her throat.

The group shifted around briefly, rummaging around with something that wasn't quite visible to the other girls. After a few seconds of fiddling, they stopped.

"We!" Erika shouted, and the group coalesced into pose that wouldn't have been out of place in a sentai show.

"Are!" The group shifted into a new pose, with two of the girls standing up to hold something between them.

There was a moment which noticeably lacked a drumroll.

The two girls stretched out a white banner, decorated with a mish-mash of colored writing and decorative shapes, all of which was centered around a disembodied, stylized doodle of Akko's smiling face, with an equally-as-disembodied doodle of a left hand giving a peace sign floating next to her.

"The Official Unofficial Atsuko Kagari Fan Club!" The group shouted, to the tune of an invisible horn playing out a "ta-da!"

Once again, the sound of a library filled the air.

"What." Hannah managed.

"We said, we're—"

"No," Amanda interrupted, "no no no, we heard you the first time, just…_what_."

"You are…" Diana struggled with her words. "Akko's…fan club?"

"Yep!" Erika smiled cheerfully.

"_Akko_ has a _fan club_?" Barbara asked incredulously.

"Again, like, _Akko_," Hannah said, "the girl with the unhealthy obsession with Shiny Chariot. The girl whose spells don't just fail but actively _blow up_. The girl who I once caught stuffing ten tarts into her mouth at the same time 'just to see if they'd fit'. _That_ Akko?"

"Uh-huh!" Erika nodded, still smiling.

Hannah made a face as if a large, winged pig had casually flown by in a rainbow-colored Mercedes-Benz.

"Ah, I know what this is," Diana said, "when Akko saved the world and revitalized magic it jumpstarted her popularity, correct?"

"I mean," Erika hesitated, "that definitely _increased_ her popularity, but most of us have been here since the beginning."

"I-I…beg…_pardon_?" Diana relaxed her shoulders in confusion.

"Well the whole thing with the entrance ceremony definitely made a big first impression on a lot of students," she explained, "and that shot her up in the polls and put her more on par with the second years than most first years in terms of popularity."

"I-I'm sorry, again," Diana sputtered, "_polls_?"

"And of course her antics always make her the center of attention." Erika chuckled. "Remember the Samhain Festival? Heh, ah…classic Akko…"

"Maybe back up," Amanda said as she tried to grapple with this new information, "like…a _lot_? What…polls?"

Erika frowned.

"Did…you guys not know?" She asked. "About the polls on the crystal ball network?"

"_Evidently_," Diana said in a noticeably strained voice, "we did _not_."

"This school has a network?" Sucy muttered to herself.

"I go on the forum for Night Fall," Lotte said, "but that's about it."

"Same." Barbara nodded.

"Huh." Erika thought for a moment. "I would have thought at least…no, never mind."

She shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"Well, okay," she said, "so the school has a site on the crystal ball network, right? Well, a while back—like, I dunno, ten years ago or something?—some students…well…it'd be easier if I showed you…does anyone have a crystal ball I can borrow?"

Luckily, one of the fan club girls did have a crystal ball on their person, drastically cutting the need for annoying side quests or anything of the sort. Erika gently placed the ball on one of the tables and spent a few awkward moments navigating to whatever it was she wanted to show, before she took out her wand and gave it a light flick.

Light trickled out of the magic orb and floated upward, pooling itself into a neat rectangle. Initially it took the form of a shiny, silvery goop as if someone had added blue food coloring to liquid mercury. Eventually, the pool flattened itself until the thickness was indiscernible, and formed into a semi-opaque image of rows upon rows of text.

Specifically, it was a list of people's names.

The witches leaned in. Hannah, Barbara, and Amanda leaned in just a bit more than was entirely necessary.

"These," Erika explained, "are the Official Unofficial Luna Nova Popularity Polls! Every student in the school is on here."

She gestured to the screen, although it was hardly necessary as no one was focused anywhere else.

"Every student is also able to join any other student's fan club." She pointed at one of the numbers on the right. "You can join as many of the clubs as you want, and leave at any time. You can also post discussions and pictures and—"

"Pictures?!" Diana grimaced.

"Yep!" Erika used the crystal ball to scroll to a random girl's name and quickly gave it a tap. A large image of Balsa McVinegar popped up, flanked by several other shots from various angles in various situations. Another table of text filled the lower half of the image.

"What in the world is 'gap moe'?" Sucy mumbled aloud as she read one of the discussion labels.

"It's pronounced 'moe-eh'," Lotte whispered, "and I'll explain it later."

"T-This seems like a flagrant disregard for privacy…" Diana wavered on her words a little.

"Don't worry," Erika said, "any rule-breaking posts are taken down!"

"That is…not reassuring…" Diana sighed. "And regardless, there is absolutely _no way_ the professors have approved of _individual_ fan clubs, let alone…"

She waved her arms wildly, in a manner unfitting of a Cavendish.

"…this!"

"That's the beauty of it," Erika said, "we don't _need_ professor approval, because we're not a school club."

"You guys _literally_ just announced yourselves as Akko's fan club." Amanda pointed out.

"Official _Unofficial_ Fan Club!" Erika smiled smugly, as if she had probed the secrets of the entire universe and then gone for ice cream cake afterwards. "Everything is tagged as 'unofficial', because as long as we don't classify ourselves as an _official_ school club, the professors don't have any authority over us whatsoever! I mean, what are they going to do, tell us we can't talk with our friends? We're a magical academy, not a…place that…has a lot of…"

She thought for a moment.

"I had an analogy for this," she said, "I _swear_ I had something for this…"

"T-that's really not in the _spirit_ of the rules surrounding—" Diana got out before Erika dismissed her concerns with a wave.

"Look," she said, "this has existed for like, ten years, and it's not as if we keep it a secret. If it were against the rules, it'd have been shut down by now, wouldn't it?"

"I-I…" Diana turned this information over in her head. "I-I don't…"

"It doesn't matter anyway," Erika said as she flicked back to the main page, "the point is, Akko's always been pretty popular."

She scrolled up and tapped on what was apparently Akko's name. Akko's page popped up including a large collection of images—at least 7 featured on the page, plus an addition four hundred judging by the little "+400 more" marker next to the gallery. A variety of topics sat at the bottom, ranging from "I doodled Akko in Culinary Magic class" to "How can I pull off Metamorphosis Magic the way Akko does?" to one which had been sitting at the top labeled with a bright yellow "HOT" sticker titled "Rumors Confirmed! Tiny Child Akko Spotted At School!"

"Her saving magic was really just a bonus," Erika continued, "it brought her up from the middle of the rankings into the top five, where she's been sitting pretty steadily for the past few weeks, usually alternating between number 3 and number 4, depending on a few things…"

Hannah, and Barbara held their mouths open in stunned silence. Amanda chewed on her knuckle to keep herself from giggling, Diana was still stuttering out a response to the earlier comments, Sucy hadn't said a word, and Lotte and Constanze merely stared at the screen.

"…and of course we also snagged a bunch of people from the Diana fan club—for _obvious_ reasons—so the increase was inevitable once people realized—"

"Excuse me, _I_ have a fan club?!" Diana exclaimed.

"Of course." Erika flicked back and tapped on a new name. "See? You've been in the number 2-3 slots pretty consistently since school started."

Diana stared at one of images on her page—a not unflattering picture of her outdoors looking up from a cup of tea—and flushed bright red.

"Bwuh—che—fwuh—" She sputtered. "Fwuh—fwuh—_fwuhuh_—"

"Hey, hey," Amanda spoke up, "where do I rank?"

Erika hummed, flicking back the page and scanning the list.

"I think Akko knocked you out of the top five," she said, "you're 7th right now, just behind Constanze."

"Top ten." Amanda grinned. "I'll take it. Not like there's any shame in being beaten by Constanze."

She ruffled Constanze's hair, and Constanze blushed a bit in embarrassment.

"What about me?" Sucy asked.

"Seriously?" Amanda scoffed. "I wouldn't have thought you cared."

Sucy merely shrugged in response.

"Pretty sure you're like 39th?" Erika scrolled through the list. "Something like that, pretty high all things considered."

She flicked back up the list.

"Of course Lotte," she said as she pointed at the girl in question, "has always been pretty high at number 5."

"E-eh?!" Lotte blushed. "M-me? I-I'm…p-popular?!"

"You did tie with Jasminka as 'nicest girl in the school'."

Lotte babbled incoherently.

"Who's number one, then?" Amanda asked, innocently enough.

"W-we really don't need to listen to this." Diana finally managed to break out of her stupor, although she still glowed a bright red. "This is a waste of ti—"

"Eh?" Erika looked confused. "Seriously? Of course it can only be Barbara!"

The library quieted unnaturally, the group slowly turning their head to face the surprised girl.

Who, for what it's worth, was stunned into silence herself. The words played and replayed in her head like a frustrated user repeatedly slamming the same input over and over into a broken website, in the hopes that it was maybe just a fluke.

"Weh?" Barbara finally said. Or rather, she made that noise. It wasn't quite clear if it constituted "speech".

"You didn't know?" Erika frowned innocently. "You're the most popular girl in school!"

The resulting silence was palpable, and Barbara's subsequent blush was almost audible.


	11. According to the polls

"_Fweee_-!" Barbara clapped her hands to her cheeks in an effort to make her mouth function. It almost worked. "Immawat?"

"Well," Erika said, "technically it's not _popularity_, really. Like, there's only so many of us, and it's not as if people are _unpopular_ or _hated_ per se, just—"

"Wait wait wait wait, wait!" Barbara waved her arms frantically. "_I'm_ the most popular girl in school?"

"Uh, yeah?" Erika seemed legitimately confused. "Did you not know that?"

"_No_!" Barbara flushed a deeper shade of red. "W-why am I at the top?!"

"Good question." Amanda quipped. Hannah bopped her in the shoulder.

"I mean, you're super cute, so that helps a lot." Erika looked thoughtful.

"HUWAAAAH?!"

"Plus you have pretty good grades, you're nice, you're into Night Fall which is a big bonus among a lot of students…" Erika hummed. "I mean, there's lots of reasons. I can't speak for other people, you know."

Barbara floundered, metaphorically if not a touch literally. Usually when embarrassed, people's brains are said to "short circuit", but Barbara's brain didn't really short circuit so much as it did pop and deflate, slowly, like a balloon, leaving nothing but a sad, floppy, rubber shell behind.

Luckily, Diana had managed to come to terms with her own placement on the list (or at least bury and suppress her emotions on the subject, like a true Cavendish), and decided to speak up.

"Alright," Diana said, "I do believe this has gone on long enough. Regardless of your 'club' I have no intention of—"

"Hey, hey," Hannah interrupted, "how popular am I?"

Diana frowned. "This _really_ isn't the time to—"

"Oh come on, Diana," Hannah waved her hand, "it's not that bad. Besides, everyone else got to hear their rank. I want to hear mine!"

"O-oh! Sure!" Erika smiled.

And smiled.

And smiled.

Hannah coughed.

"A-aren't you…" She hesitated. "…aren't you going to look?"

"U-um…" Erika stared at an interesting spot on the back wall. "W-well…"

"Come on already," Hannah huffed, "I don't care if it's bad. Just look up my name."

"O-oh, yes!" Erika bit her lip. "…um…?"

Hannah blinked and frowned.

"Y-you don't even know my name…?"

"I-I do!" Erika nodded vigorously in denial. "I-I totally do! Y-you're…um…"

Hannah smiled hopefully.

One of the other club members whispered rapidly into Erika's ear.

"O-oh! Right! I remember! You're Barbara's friend! Anna!"

"HANNAH!" Hannah exclaimed, her smile falling to pieces.

"Hannah! Yes!" Erika smiled cheerfully. "Hannah Australia!"

"ENGLAND!" Hannah half-sobbed. "THAT'S NOT EVEN THE SAME CONTINEEEENT!"

"I take it back, this is the funniest thing I have ever seen." Amanda grinned wildly.

Sucy stuck her knuckle into her mouth and bit down, fighting the urge to laugh uproariously.

"HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHO I AM?!"

"S-sorry," Erika waved her hands apologetically, "I-I didn't mean anything by it, just…well…"

"I'M WITH BARBARA _ALL THE TIME_!"

"Y-yes, but, well, people pay attention to Barbara and not—ooh, that came out wrong…"

Between Erika's failure at making the situation better, Amanda's stifled giggling, and Hannah's despondent blubbering, the conversation had risen to a din. Diana pinched the bridge of her nose.

"ENOUGH!" She shouted over the group. "This is _exactly_ why I considered these clubs to be problematic. Hannah, are you okay?"

Hannah slumped over into one of the library chairs, her facial expression dead to the world and mumbling something about "all her work being for naught".

"I'm not sure if that's a yes, but…" Diana looked pointedly at Erika, "As far as your little club is concerned, regardless of this whole debacle, Akko is suffering a severe magical reaction—"

"So she _is_ a child!" One of the club members shouted.

Diana sighed.

"—which has reverted her to childhood, yes."

A few of the club members let out a series of high-pitched squees.

"But…" Diana made a point to glare at the group. "This is not something to be proud of. We do not know how or why Akko was turned into a child, nor do we know how to change her back just yet. As such, you will refrain from…" She waved her hands to emphasize her point. "…_drooling_ over her as you are now."

"But—" Erika began.

"No buts!" Diana huffed. "I will not have you making Akko uncomfortable, and we have already decided to avoid telling her about her predicament for the time being. Your presence would only complicate matters and serve to confuse the poor girl. Now return to class immediately. And be forewarned that I will be informing the professors of this little…_popularity ranking_ business."

The club let out a series of disappointed noises, with one of them—Diana couldn't quite tell who—shouting "narc!" as they turned around and shuffled away. The last of them filtered out the door, shutting it quietly but firmly, as if they were angry but didn't want to damage the door by slamming it.

Diana let out a sigh of relief, pausing briefly to think.

The door creaked open and one of the club members stuck her head back in.

"Can we at least get pictures?"

"OUT!" Diana ordered, causing the club member to retreat.

Diana rubbed her eyes, alternating between sighing internally and sighing externally.

"O'Neill," she said, "please refrain from any outbursts."

Amanda mumbled a response, but it was muffled by her hand pressed up against her mouth.

Lotte cautiously crept her way towards the redheaded ragdoll currently slumped in the chair, the way one might approach a particularly skittish puppy.

"H-Hannah?" Lotte gently placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Are…are you okay?"

"GONE!" Hannah shouted and jerked upright, causing Lotte to jump back in surprise. "IZALLGONE! EVERYTHING I WORKED FOR, BYE-BYE, NO MORE!"

Her voice was cracking, warbling between notes at random.

"H-Hannah…" Barbara said.

"I could have _handled_ being last," Hannah said as she leaned her head over the back of the chair, "I could have handled that. But they didn't even know my name?! _WHYYYYYYY_?!"

"You shouldn't worry about this kind of thing," Diana sighed, "it's merely a bunch of childish nonsense."

"Childish nonsense that _I worked hard for_!" Hannah shot back.

"…I'm going to assume that sounded better in your head." Diana folded her arms.

"I tried my best to be popular!" Hannah whined. "It's not fair! I rubbed elbows with the right people! I wore the right fashion! I'm next to Barbara all the time and I'm _still_ not popular?!"

She bonked her head down on the table and sobbed loudly into the wood, covering her head with her hands.

"Was it the Night Fall? I tried getting into it, I swear, I just couldn't understand the part in the first book where they do the ritual at Stonehenge!"

"U-um," Lotte coughed, "t-that was the fourth book."

"AW, COME ON!"

"H-Hannah…" Barbara put a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. "It's okay. It doesn't matter how popular you are, we're still your friends. I'm still your friend."

Hannah sniffled and glanced up. Barbara smiled gently.

"I'll always be your friend," she said, "does that make you feel better?"

Hannah smiled warmly, looking Barbara deep in the eyes and absorbing the compassion that radiated from her expression. She took a deep breath through her nose.

"Not really, no." Hannah said, and promptly collapsed back onto the table, incoherently blubbering something about her social life being over.

Barbara winced and frowned at the display, unsure of how to proceed.

"Don't bother with this foolishness," Diana huffed in annoyance, "she'll get over it."

"Yeah," Amanda snorted, "but until then we have to listen to it."

A short while later, the library door creaked open once again.

"Sorry we took so long…" Jasminka's hushed voice was barely audible, but clear and crisp. She walked in, carrying an apparently exhausted Akko over her shoulder. "Akko spotted one of the janitor goblins and chased after them, only for her to get distracted by a _different_ fairy and—"

Jasminka blinked, digesting the scene before her in her mind.

"Did…we miss something?" She tilted her head.

Hannah continued to sob quietly into the table.


	12. A Time When Nothing Important Happens

"I'd like to get back to the point," Diana said, "if we could?"

She gave the library a quick once-over, her eyes lingering on the sight of Akko propped up in one of the chairs, sleeping peacefully with her head resting against Hannah, who herself had fallen asleep about two minutes into her sobbing spree.

"The library is full of books with old legends and spells, we might be able to find a clue about what happened to Akko, or even a full counterspell if we're lucky."

"What, just looking at old books until we find something about an age spell?" Amanda snorted. "Booooriiiing."

"Boring or not, it's the best lead we have so far." Diana stalked over to one of the bookcases lining the walls. She thumbed the spines for a moment before selecting a particularly thick green-blue one. Flicking out and waving her wand, she floated out the book from the shelf and in front of Amanda. "Start reading, please."

Amanda took the floating book with both hands before blowing a short raspberry.

"I just wish we knew what we were looking for," Barbara said as she tugged at some ancient tome bound in leather, "you girls didn't find anything in the potions room?"

Diana stiffened.

"No…" She drew out her words, not wanting to respond too quickly or too slowly. "We didn't find anything that…would cause Akko's transformation…right, Sucy?"

"Nope," Sucy responded in a voice a bit less monotone than usual, "nothing…about Akko's transformation."

Amanda raised an eyebrow.

"Okay…" She said. "What about you, Jas? Find anything on your wacky misadventure with Akko?"

"Other than the names of a few fairies I need to apologize to later?" Jasminka sighed. "Nothing."

She held up a small piece of paper.

"We did find the onyx wood, though, so we were able to finish the spell on the paper."

"Ooh," Sucy cooed, "let me see."

She politely snatched the paper out of Jasminka's hand and gave it a good stare.

The paper itself was old and brown and dull, but a visible pattern had emerged in a myriad of colors. Swirly bits connected to jagged angles, which pointed inwards and outwards and in many directions at once. Like someone had managed to tie-dye ice crystals and shattered glass.

"I have no idea how to read this." She concluded.

"Naturally." Diana tossed her hair back as she came up behind Sucy. "The kit is well over a century old, none of us would have the knowledge of how to read such a thing."

Lotte took a quick glance at the paper.

"It's quite pretty, at least." She said. "Lots of colors."

"Oh yes," Diana nodded, "I especially like the way the yellow bleeds into the blue near the center pattern."

Sucy rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue, casually tossing the paper out of her hand. Jasminka expertly grabbed the paper out of the air and stuffed it gently in her pocket.

"In any case," Diana continued, "the important part is that we all do our part to investigate what has happened. I know it's not 'exciting', but not everything in life involves saving the world."

"Even if we do that often." Amanda smirked.

"Even if," Diana said as she picked out a book of her own, "read please."

And they did so, silently, for a few moments, only occasionally getting up to pick up a new book or put an old one away.

And Amanda hated it. Every boring second of it. Which is why she was immensely grateful when a loud creak sounded throughout the library.

One of the bookshelves seldom used by students rumbled and moaned, pulling itself backwards and slid to the side, revealing a low-arched wooden door.

"What." Barbara managed, fighting back the utter confusion.

The wooden door creaked open just a smidge, enough to allow two teachers to walk out.

"Headmistress Holbrooke!" Lotte noted. "Professor Finnelan!"

"Ah," the headmistress gave a polite nod, "hello students. How goes your search?"

"Not well, headmistress." Diana sighed. "Unfortunately."

The two teachers exited the hidden passage, which promptly shut itself—both door and bookcase—with a soft click and a loud creak. The pair stopped at the table near the group, and Holbrooke smiled down at the sleeping child.

"Ah yes," she said, "but at least she appears to have had her fill of fun toda—"

She paused.

"Why is…miss England also passed out in a library chair?"

"It's better to not dwell on that, trust me." Diana said, closing her book. "Would it be too much to ask if the Horologium room had been tampered with?"

The headmistress sighed.

"I'm afraid not," she said, "professor Char—Ursula's seals have remained intact, and the clock shows no signs of tampering, magical manipulation, or anything other than normal use."

"If anything," Finnelan sighed, "it's running smoother than before."

The group mulled this over.

"W-well," Lotte said, "at least this rules out time travel!"

"I appreciate your optimism, miss Jansson." Holbrooke gave a soft smile, before frowning again. "I was hoping to resolve this quickly, or at least without forcing too many staff members off of their duties to help with the issue, but at this rate we'll have to start searching the archives and campus at random for the magical artefact that caused this."

"That could take ages." Diana said, frowning.

"Indeed." Finnelan said, before mumbling under her breath. "Though luckily most of the teachers here fear parental lawsuits slightly more than they fear a bit of elbow grease…"

"I'm sure it'll all work out," Amanda said, "Akko probably just cheesed off some angry spirit in one of the magic mirrors or something utterly cliché like that."

Holbrooke gave that sentence a bit of thought, looking somewhat bemused.

"There's a possibility I hadn't considered…" She mused a bit. "Anne, have Ursula gather and inspect all the magic mirrors we have available, on the off-chance that this is nothing more than a malignant spirit casting a powerful glamour."

"Do you really think a mirror turned Akko into a child?" Barbara raised an eyebrow. "It sounds a bit…powerful…for a simple mirror."

"Mirrors have always been powerful magical tools, even when magic was fading away; people often talk of their power to show the truth in ourselves, but many forget of how easily mirrors can lie or trick us." Holbrooke explained wistfully. "Now, after everything that happened with the Grand Triskellion and the resurgence of magic, I believe anything may be possible."

"I'll tell Ursula to start taking every mirror she can find into the auditorium," Finnelan said, "we can go through them there."

"Thank you, Anne." Holbrooke smiled. "And as for you girls, I will send notice to your teachers that you'll be continuing to help miss Kagari for the foreseeable future. You're excused from any classes you wish."

Amanda gave a fist pump as the two teachers walked to the door leading out of the room.

"If you find anything, do not hesitate to tell us." She smiled and gave another polite nod. "Take care, girls."

And with that, the pair left.

Barbara paused, turning things over in her mind.

"Is anyone going to tell me what the whole deal is with the moving bookcase and time travel bit," she said, "or am I going to just be kept in the dark on everything?"

"Oh, I hope professor Ursula can find something to help." Lotte moaned lightly.

"Kept in the dark it is. As usual."

"Like I said," Amanda chuckled, "I'm sure it'll work out. Akko probably just did something…y'know, Akko-like. Like touching a big glowing rune thingy, or setting a sacred tree on fire, or something."

"And if things don't work out?" Diana raised an eyebrow.

"Amanda does have a point…" Jasminka said. "We can try to fix the problem, we just have to figure out what went wrong? People do not just age backwards for no reason, after all."

"Probably." Sucy said, rolling her eyes. "Let's get back to work, I'd rather things worked out before dinner, not after."

"That would be best." Diana said, pausing a moment to think. "And would someone wake Hannah, please?"

Hannah simply snored lightly and turned over in her sleep, dreaming of nothing particularly important.


End file.
